Columbia  Slniticr^itp 

THE  LIBRARIES 


E^rCHJiVED BY T.B.WELCh:  'EHlt^j FHCJ^  AUAGUEIiBEOTyFE 


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THE 


(Srtat  Iron  Wil^td  (fc^^aminci; 


ITS  FALSE  SPOKES  EXTRACTED, 


AN  EXHIBITION  OF  ELDER  GRAVES,  ITS  BUILDER. 


IN  A  SERIES  OF  CHAPTERS. 


BY 

WILLIAM    G.    BROWNLOW, 

EDITOR  OF  BEOWNLOW'S  KNOXVILLZ  WHIO. 


"To  the  law  and  to  the  testimony:  if  they  speak  not  according  to  this  word,  it  ia 
because  there  is  no  light  in  them." — Isaiah  viii.  20. 

"  For  there  is  nothing  covered,  that  shall  not  be  revealed;  and  hid,  that  shall  not 
be  known." — Christ. 


NASHVILLE,  TENX. : 

PUBLISHED   FOR   THE   AUTHOR. 

1856. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1856,  by 

WILLIAM  G.  BROWNLOW, 

In  the  OfiBce  of  the  Clerk  of  the  District  Court  for  the  Middle  District  of  Tennessee. 


§tVuii\i^\x. 


TO 

Every  honest  and  impartial  reader, 

■who  loves  Truth  and  despises  Falsehood, 

■whether  perpetrated  by  a  Priest  or  a  Levitc, 

for   the   sake   of  Fame,    or   money  -  making : 

To  every  Protestant  Christian,  who,   to  whatever 

sect  or  denomination  he  may  be  attached,  is  unwilling 

*"   to  see  a  sister  Church  pulled  down  by  a  collection  of  tales, 

fabrications,  and  blackguard  insinuations,  ■which  a  decent  man 

shoui'^'  be  ashamed  to  listen  to,  and  utterly  too  disgraceful  for  a 

Minister  of  the  Gospel  to  repeat  and  publish,  this  Avork  is  confidently 

DEDICATED  BY  ITS  AUTHOR : 

Who  here,  most  respectfully,  as  a  Local  Preacher  of  the  Methodist 

Episcopal  Church,  South,  apologizes  to  the  Christian  public 

for  the  seeming  severity  of  this  ■work,  in  some  parts,  on 

the  ground  that  he  has  performed  the  painful  task 

of  refuting  a  series  of  the   most   scurrilous 

falsehoods,  and  a  collection  of  the  lowest 

abuse  of  the  age ! 


(iii) 


i.  LJ  Cy  K.>   1    KJ 


CONTENTS 


Dedication iii 

Pkkface xi 

CHAPTER   I. 

Graves  seeking  notoriety — Desires  a  controversy  •with  Dr.  M'Ferrin — 
Has  the  impudence  to  address  Forty  Epistles  to  Bishop  Soule — Edits 
the  Tennessee  Baptist — The  nature  and  character  of  the  man  to  be 
fully  disclosed  in  the  sequel 19 

CHAPTER   II. 

Elder  Graves  misrepresents  Mr.  Wesley's  views  —  These  slanders 
endorsed  by  the  North  Carolina  Publishing  Society — Mr.  Wesley's 
difficulties  in  Savannah — Indicted  by  a  jury  for  repelling  a  lady 
from  the  holy  communion — Twelve  of  the  jurors  defend  him — His 
return  to  England — Some  beautiful  incidents  in  the  life  of  Elder 
Graves! 27 

CHAPTER  III. 

Mr.  Wesley's  early  training — Character  of  his  mother — His  ordina- 
tions— His  intercourse  with  the  Moravians — Preaches  in  the  open 
fields  with  great  power  and  effect — The  organization  of  the  first 
Conference — Introduction  of  Methodism  into  America — Preachers 
sent  over  to  America — First  Conference  held  in  Philadelphia — Ap- 


VI  CONTENTS. 

peal  to  the  "North  Carolina  Publishing  Society  of  the  Baptljit 
Church" — Fruits  of  Methodism — Statistics — Comparative  strength 
of  Methodists  and  Baptists  in  Georgia — Closing  scenes  of  Mr.  Wes>- 
ley's  life — His  triumphant  death — Inscription  on  his  tomb — De- 
scription of  his  person 48 

CHAPTER   IV. 

Opposition  to  Methodism — Methodism  "  an  accident,  and  of  human 
invention" — Methodism  not  the  work  of  design,  but  of  Providence 
— Mr.  Wesley  the  author  of  Episcopacy — Ordination  of  Dr.  Coke — 
Deacons,  elders,  and  bishops,  considered  as  orders  in  the  ministry 
— Testimony  of  Clarke,  Watson,  Emory,  Stillingfleet,  and  Dr.  Miller, 
in  reference  to  Episcopacy — The  Baptist  the  only  Church  of  Christ 
on  earth  ! 71 

CHAPTEE  y. 

Coke  and  Asbury  not  qualified  to  found  a  Church  of  Christ — Holliman 
and  Williams  -were  ! — Baptists  in  a  regular  line  of  succession  from 
John  the  Baptist — The  Church  in  Mesopotamia — Benedict's  History 
of  the  Baptists — Holliman  baptizing  Williams — Peculiarities  of 
Roger  Williams — Baptist  members  all  Christians — Rare  specimens 
of  Baptist  conversions! 90 

CHAPTER  yi. 

Elder  Graves  copies  largely  from  F.  A.  Ross,  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church — An  address  delivered  in  Virginia,  a  reply  to  Ross — Corre- 
spondence between  Ross  and  the  aiithor  of  this  v^^ork — Ross  opposes 
the  Methodist  doctrine  of  the  Direct  Witness — Distinguished  Pres- 
byterians advocate  it — Ross  charges  Methodists  with  being  Tories 
— Himself  proven  to  be  a  free  negro,  and  the  son  of  an  old  Scotch 
Tory  of  the  Revolution — The  Methodist  common  masses  destitute 
of  moral  honesty  and  integrity  of  character — Methodists  fanatical 
— Presbyterians  more  so,  as  shown  by  the  conduct  of  three  of  the 
editors  of  the  Calvinistic  Magazine — Witchcraft  and  conjurors — 
The  congregation  complimenting  the  address — Reply  by  the  au- 
thor   101 


CONTENTS.  vil 


CHAPTER  VII 


State  of  human  society  calls  for  controversy — The  Methodist  creed 
not  Calvinistic,  as  falsely  alleged  by  Graves — Methodist  Articles  of 
Religion — What  Calvinism  is,  and  with  whom  it  originated — Ameri- 
can Baptists  are  generally  Calvinistic — Testimony  of  Elder  Howell 
— The  Philadelphia  Baptist  Confession  of  Faith — Thomas  JeflFerson 
and  the  Five  Points  of  Calvinism — Testimony  of  Buck  and  Watson 
to  the  effect  that  Baptists  are  Calvinists — Further  proof  from  the 
"Baptist  Watchman" — Ranting  about  Baptism — Abusive  spirit  of 
Calvinism — A  sound  system  of  theology  offered  to  the  Baptists!  163 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Close  Communion  considered — Baptists  more  unscripturally  close  than 
others — Derivation  of  the  term  Sacrament — Proselyting  practice  of 
Baptists — Robert  Hall,  a  distinguished  Baptist  preacher,  opposed 
to  Close  Communion — A  case  of  outrageous  bigotry  and  Close  Com- 
munion— Elders  Graves,  Buck,  and  Howell,  for  Close  Communion — 
Baptism  essential  to  salvation,  both  with  Baptists  and  Roman  Ca- 
tholics— Close  Communion  leads  to  treason  against  God — Christ's 
kingdom  eternal — John's  kingdom  temporary — Terms  of  Methodist 
communion  reasonable  and  scriptural — They  exclude  no  orthodox 
Christians  in  good  standing  in  their  own  Churches 176 


CHAPTER  IX. 

False  assertions  by  Elder  Graves — Nature  and  use  of  Baptism — The 
Abrahamic  covenant  considered — Baptism  in  lieu  of  circumcision — 
The  rights  of  infants  secured  in  both  cases — Scriptural  evidence  pf 
the  soundness  of  these  positions — Baptism  the  door  into  the  Church 
— Baptists  enter  the  Church  backwards ! — Dunkers  practice  trine 
immersion,  but  go  it  face  foremost  I — Methodists,  Presbyterians, 
Episcopalians,  and  others,  enter  the  Church  of  God  faces  foremost, 
conscious  of  rectitude  of  intention,  and  of  being  engaged  in  acta 
they  are  not  ashamed  of! 188 


via  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   X. 

Elder  Graves  against  the  Methodist  views  of  Baptism — John's  bai-tifim 
considered,  both  as  to  its  nature  and  design,  its  origin  and  mode — 
John's  was  not  the  Christian  baptism — He  did  not  practice  immer- 
sion— Christ's  baptism  considered — The  design  that  of  complying 
with  the  requirements  of  the  law  of  Moses — The  mode  not  that  of 
immersion — Indecent  exhibition  of  females  when  immersed!...  20-1 

CTI AFTER   XI. 

The  Sacraments  of  Baptism  and  the  Supper  not  duly  administered  by 
Methodists — The  Methodist  not  a  Christian  or  Gospel  Church — 
Ought  not  so  to  be  recognized  by  Baptists — Methodists  baptize 
infants  and  unbelievers — Two  dreams  by  two  preachers — Seekers 
and  infants  entitled  to  baptism,  as  shown  from  Scripture  and 
reason 216 

CHAPTER   XII. 

Elder  Graves's  position,  no  baptism  without  going  into  the  water — 
Criticism  on  the  word  baptizo — Greek  particles  considered — Figura- 
tive language  considered — The  scriptural  argument  for  immersion — 
The  river  Jordan  a  bold  and  dashing  stream — Testimony  of  Stevens 
and  Brown — Immersion  utterly  impracticable  in  such  a  stream!  224 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

No  serving  of  God  without  immersion,  according  to  Elder  Graves — 
None  but  immersed  believers  can  constitute  a  Church — Eight  scrip- 
tural examples  of  Christian  baptism — Inhabitants  of  the  Polar 
regions  of  the  earth  excluded  from  the  service  of  God,  if  immersion 
be  the  true  and  only  mode  of  baptism — Indecent  personal  exhibi- 
tion, growing  out  of  immersion — Summary  of  the  whole 233 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

Elder  Graves  perpetrates  twenty-five  falsehoods  in  one  chapter  of 
twelve  pages,  being  over  two  lies  to  a  page — Espouses  the  cause 


CONTENTS.  IX 

of  local  preachers,  at  the  expense  of  the  travelling  ministry  — 
Plays  oflf  the  demagogue,  and  misrepresents  the  laws  of  the  Method- 
ist Church — Proves  himself  unworthy  of  the  confidence  of  honest 
men  of  all  denominations! 243 


CHAPTER    XV. 

Three  specimens  of  deliberate  lying — A  vulgar,  false,  and  slanderous 
caricature  of  a  Methodist  revival — The  challenge  by  the  North 
Carolina  Publishing  Society  of  the  Baptist  Church — Replies  of 
Doctors  Lee  and  Deems — Graves  publicly  caned  for  slander — The 
Baptist  "Western  Recorder"  against  Graves,  alluding  to  his  Church 
troubles  in  Nashville — His  abuse  at  Bowling-Green — Damages  ob- 
tained against  Graves  in  Tennessee,  for  libel,  to  the  extent  of 
$7,500 — Mortgages  all  his  property  away,  under  peculiar  circum- 
stances I  254 

CHAPTER   XYI. 

Graves's  reckless  slander  of  Rev.  F.  A.  Owen — Falsehood  in  reference 
to  a  debate  with  Chapman — Cornered  in  both  cases  and  made  to 
square  out — "  Christian  Magazine"  vs.  Graves — The  Baptist  "West- 
ern Recorder"  vs.  Graves — A  Correspondent  of  the  "South-western 
Baptis<t"  vs.  Graves — "New  Orleans  Wpekly  Baptist  Chronicle" 
vs.  Graves  —  Professor  Duncan,  pastor  of  the  New  Orleans  Bap- 
tist Church,  vs.  Graves — "  Knoxville  Baptist  Watchman"  vs.  Graves 
— Scriptural  advice  to  Graves  and  his  understrikers  1 269 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

Methodism  "Republicanism  Backwards" — Graves's  pictorial  repre- 
sentations of  the  oppressions  of  Methodism — Methodism  "death  to 
all  the  institutions  for  which  Washington  fought  and  freemen  died" 
— Washington  taught  the  contrary  in  his  letter  to  Bishops  Asbury 
and  Coke — The  Baptist  Churches  pure  democracies — Robert  Hall 
thought  otherwise — Hall's  opinion  of  Wesley — Wesley's  Address  to 
the  American  Methodists — Strength  of  religious  parties  in  this 
country — Churches  dividing  upon  the  slavery  question  —  Elder 
Graves  a  Northern  man,  and  strongly  suspected  of  Abolitionism '  278 
1* 


X  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XYIII. 

Graves  for  and  against  Know-Nothingism — A  two-faced  and  insincere 
man — The  "State  Line  Baptist  Association"  endorsing  Graves's 
paper  and  book — Criticisms  upon  that  endorsement,  and  the  char- 
acters of  the  members  of  the  Association — Their  endorsement  of 
Orchard's  History  of  Foreign  Baptists — New  Version  Baptists — 
Their  fraudulent  demagogueism,  and  ulterior  objects! 287 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

The  consideration  of  certain  miscellaneous  items  bearing  upon  the 
merits  of  this  controversy — The  "Biblical  Recorder"  charges  that 
Methodism  is  a  human  invention — Defends  Graves  against  Method- 
ist slandei's — Methodists  shrink  from  investigation — Speech  of  Rev. 
Dr.  Slambangus  in  Raleigh  —  Powell's  Valley  Association  —  The 
renegade  Jew  ett,  of  Ohio — North  Carolina  Baptists  vs.  Missionary, 
Bible,  Tract,  Sunday-school,  and  Temperance  Societies — Methodists 
falsely  accused  of  rebaptizing  —  Absurd  position  of  Close  Com- 
munion Baptists — Guilty  of  treason  against  God! 297 

CHAPTER    XX. 

Elder  Graves  and  slavery — Separation  of  the  Methodist  Church  on 
account  of  slavery  —  Slaveholders  admitted  into  the  apostolic 
Churches — Primitive  Christians  held  slaves — Proof  from  the  Scrip- 
tures that  slavery  existed  in  the  earliest  days  of  the  Christian 
Church — Views  of  Drs.  Neander  and  Clarke — According  to  the 
Scriptures,  slavery  will  exist  to  the  end  of  time — Concluding 
remarks 312 

To  THE  Methodists 322 


BrHatt 


The  author  of  this  >York  does  not  feel  it  incumbent  upon  him 
to  offer  an  apology  for  writing  this  defence  of  the  personal  in- 
tegrity and  respectability  of  Methodist  preachers,  and  of  the 
polity  and  doctrines  of  Methodism.  He  has  prepared  this  work 
for  publication  because  he  believed  it  called  for,  as  a  set-off  to 
the  "star  papers"  of  unmitigated  abuse  and  calumny,  osten- 
tatiously paraded  in  a  book  of  five  hundred  and  seventy  pages, 
by  the  notorious  /.  R.  Graves,  editor  of  the  "Tennessee  Baptist," 
at  Nashville,  and  which  are  now  receiving  the  praises  of  the 
irreligious,  vindictive,  and  more  indiscreet  partisans  of  that  re- 
spectable and  numerous  denomination  of  Christians.  There  are 
few  men  in  this  country  who,  in  a  small  tear/,  have  gained  so 
much  notoriety,  or  prostituted  a  larger  stock  of  ordiiiary  talents 
to  baser  purposes,  than  this  man  Graves !  While  eagerly  seeking 
for  notoriety,  and  not  knowing  how  to  obtain  it,  on  account 
of  the  unwillingness  of  various  dignified  Christian  ministers 
to  come  in  contact  with  him — not  dreading  his  talents,  but 
his  irreligious  spirit,  his  proneness  to  prevaricate,  his  low  and 
scurrilous  abuse,  and  the  fact  of  his  general  course  of  con- 
duct not  meeting  with  the  approval  of  the  more  intelligent  and 
bighminded  members  of  his  own  denomination— his  last  effort, 
perhaps  the  culminating  point  of  his  glory,  has  been  to  throw  all 

(xi) 


Ill  TREFACE. 

the  slang  of  his  ill-spent  life  together  in  one  volume,  and  adorn 
its  vulgar  pages  with  pictures,  and  by  its  novelty  make  some 
money  1 

At  the  close  of  the  Jifth  volume  of  bound  books,  as  original, 
upon  subjects  of  controversy,  -which  the  author  of  this  work  has 
put  forth  from  time  to  time,  immersed  in  the  cares,  anxieties, 
and  arduous  duties  of  the  editorial  profession,  as  he  is,  he  had 
hoped  that  no  event  in  the  exciting  religious  controversies  of  the 
day  would  impose  on  him  the  task  of  furnishing  the  world  with 
a  sixth  volume.  Besides,  wanting  the  time  for  much  careful  read- 
ing and  patient  investigation,  he  has  felt  the  more  reluctant  to 
reply  to  this  series  of  blackguard  assaults  on  Methodism,  Mean- 
time, his  attention  has  been  called  to  the  unscrupulous  character 
of  Graves's  "  Iron  Wheel,"  and  of  the  wide  circulation  given  it  in 
the  South  and  South-west,  and  of  the  dangerous  tendency  of  its 
slanders  among  the  really  uninformed ;  and  solicitations  have 
come  from  almost  every  quarter  requesting  him  to  reply. 
Prompted  by  these  considerations,  the  work  commenced.  The 
design  was  to  meet  and  refute  the  most  glaring  and  absurd  of 
these  slanders — to  exhibit  to  the  world  who  this  man  Graves 
was — to  present,  without  entering  largely  into  the  argument,  the 
number  of  palpable  falsehoods  this  "  accuser  of  the  brethren" 
had  perpetrated  in  one  single  chapter.  It  was  thought  that  a 
few  brief  chapters,  setting  forth  the  most  palpable  slanders, 
would  accomplish  this  purpose  ;  but  as  the  writer  proceeded,  the 
magnitude  of  the  work  increased.  He  found,  from  a  number  of 
respectable  periodicals  which  came  into  his  hands  as  the  work 
progressed — both  Methodist  and  Baptist  journals — that  Graves 
had  laid  himself  liable  to  exposures  on  all  hands,  and  had  actu- 
ally been  held  up  in  different  States  as  a  general  disturber  of  the 
religious  peace,  guilty  of  numerous  misrepresentations.  Hence, 
he  has  been  led,  not  only  to  quote  a  number  of  authors,  but  also 


PREFACE.  Xm 

to  multiply  quotations  from  the  same  authors  and  editors.  This 
imposed  a  necessity  of  going  more  extensively  into  an  exposd  of 
this  arrogant  and  mischievous  man  than  was  at  first  designed. 
Thus  the  chapters  will  be  found  to  be  numerous,  and  some  of 
them  are  quite  long. 

The  "  Iron  Wheel'^  by  Graves  does  not  possess  even  the  merit 
of  originality,  being  a  re-hash  of,  and  an  enlargement  upon,  a 
similar  work,  by  Frederick  Augustus  Ross,  D.D.,  a  more  talented 
man  than  Graves,  but  a  man  of  color,  and  a  broken-down  minister 
of  the  New  School  Presbyterian  Church,  who,  having  retreated 
from  the  field  of  his  operations  in  East  Tennessee,  has  taken  up 
quarters  in  Iluntsville,  Alabama.  This  circumstance,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  fact  that  Graves  has  quoted  largely  from  Ross,  and 
filched  from  him  in  other  instances  without  the  proper  credit — 
not  observing  the  old  adage,  that  there  should  be  "  honor  among 
thieves" — has  led  the  author  of  this  work  to  occupy  several  pages 
in  detailing  the  particulars  and  also  the  points  in  the  Ross  con- 
troversy— a  controversy  in  which  he  acted  rather  a  conspicuous 
part. 

While  the  writer  cannot  but  hope  that  the  work  will  be  of  ser- 
vice to  the  cause  of  Truth,  or  Methodism,  or  Christianity,  he 
entertains  no  doubt  that,  in  the  press  of  business,  some  points 
have  not  been  fully  elaborated,  and  that  it  contains  imperfections ; 
but  he  hopes  that  the  importance  of  the  issues  will  divert  atten- 
tion from  whatever  defects  may  appear.  The  writer  does  not 
think  an  apology  is  necessary  for  his  entering  the  arena  of  re- 
ligious controversy — not  at  all !  He  is  not  one  of  those  whose 
superabundant  charity  would  induce  him  to  stand  quietly  by 
while  a  clerical  gladiator,  wholly  unscrupulous,  reviles  the  living 
and  the  dead,  rather  than  buckle  on  the  harness  in  their  defence  ; 
nor  is  he  one  of  those  who  profess  an  exemption  from  sectarian- 
ism,  which  they  fail  to  exemplify.     He  believes  that  had  it  not 


XIV  PREFACE. 

been  for  controversy,  Romish  priests  would  now  be  feeding  us  all 
with  Latin  masses  and  with  their  wafer  gods! 

Not  the  least  weighty,  however,  among  the  several  reasons 
which  induced  the  writer  to  undertake  this  work,  were  the 
numerous  and  urgent  solicitations  from  ministers  and  laymen  of 
the  Metliodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  known  to  the  writer  as 
men  of  mature  judgments,  and  of  influence  and  character.  He, 
therefore,  concludes  this  preface  with  a  few  only  of  the  many 
calls  made  upon  him  in  1855  to  furnish  such  a  production.  A 
gentleman  writing  from  Danville,  Kentucky,  thus  concludes  his 
letter  :— 

The  friends  of  Methodism  in  this  part  of  Kentucky,  or  at  least  a 
portion  of  them,  are  anxious  that  you  should  review  the  "  Iron  Wheel" 
by  J.  R.  Graves,  a  man  who  has  figured  in  this  State  in  years  gone 
by,  but  under  circumstances  by  no  means  creditable  to  him.  His 
vile  and  slanderous  work  is  being  extensively  circulated,  and  needs 
just  such  a  reply  as  we  believe  you  are  capable  of  producing.  Either 
take  him  up  in  your  widely -circulated  paper,  or  in  book  form — the 
latter,  I  should  say.  In  the  first  place,  demonstrate,  and  this  will 
not  be  hard  to  do,  that  whatever  of  talents  Mr.  Graves  may  possess, 
God  never  intended  he  should  specially  and  solemnly  devote  them  to 
the  interests  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  else  he  would  have  accompanied 
them  with  a  moderate  revelation  of  grace !  You  should  next  demon- 
strate that  he  has  forgotten  the  age  and  country  in  which  he  lives  by 
three  hundred  years,  or  he  would  feel  comfortable  while  others  think 
for  themselves.  Men  in  this  age  do  not  expect  to  share  the  fate  of 
Servetus,  though  they  should  diflFer  from  Mr,  Graves.  I  will  not  say 
what  men  ought  to  expect  when  they  are  so  fortunate  as  not  to  diflFer 
with  him  ! 

A  gentleman  writing  on  other  business  from  Somerville,  Tenn., 
thus  concludes : — 

Brownlow,  can't  you  find  time  to  overhaul  the  "Iron  Wheel"  of  the 
notorious  Graves?  I  have  heard  the  wish  expressed  here  and  at 
Memphis  that  you  would  take  him  in  hand  and  discuss  his  merits. 


PREFACE.  XV 

either  in  pamphlet  form  or  thi-ough  the  columns  of  your  excellent 
paper.  I  have  long  believed  him  to  be  a  very  bad  man,  and  his  book 
displays  the  very  worst  features  of  his  character.  The  intelligent 
and  pious  portion  of  the  Baptist  Church  are  truly  sick  of  the  man, 
and  put  up  no  defence  of  him  or  his  writings.  To  be  brief,  and  at 
the  same  time  candid,  you  must  take  him  in  hand,  though  I  am  aware 
that  you  have  but  little  leisure. 

A  gentleman  of  intelligence  and  great  weight  of  character  thus 
introduces  a  letter  from  "Wilmington,  N.  C. : — 

Mr.  Browxlow: — Though  I  have  no  personal  acquaintance  with 
you,  I  kuow  you  well,  and  have  known  you  for  years,  agreeing  with 
you  both  in  religious  and  political  belief.  I  write  you  now,  hurriedly, 
in  reference  to  a  book  being  circulated  here,  known  as  the  "Iron 
"Wheel,"  and  as  the  production  of  a  certain  3Ir.  Graves  of  your  State. 
It  contains  an  immense  amount  of  false  and  slanderous  matter  con- 
cerning the  ministry,  the  polity  and  doctrines  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  With  the  understanding  we  have  as  to  the  unreliable 
character  of  the  author,  we  should  feel  inclined  to  let  it  pass ;  but 
the  "Publishing  Society  of  the  Baptist  Church"  in  North  Carolina 
have  adopted  the  work,  and  are  extensively  circulating  it,  thereby 
making  its  lies  and  calumnies  their  own.  For  their  sakes,  we  desire  it 
answered ;  and  you  are  the  man  for  the  work.  Enough  of  such  a 
work  as  you  could  produce  can  be  sold  in  this  State  alone  to  defray 
the  expenses  of  publishing  a  large  edition.  What  say  you  ?  Graves's 
work  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  an  enlargement  upon  the  slanders 
and  abuse  of  F.  A.  Ross,  whom  you  put  to  silence,  and,  as  we  under- 
stand here,  have  actually  driven  out  of  your  State. 

One  in  whose  judgment  the  author  of  this  work  places  great 
reliance  thus  addresses  him  from  Buckingham  Co.,  Virginia  :— 

My  dear  Sir: — You  doubtless  receive  in  exchange  the  "Richmond 
Christian  Advocate,"  and  if  so,  you  have  perused  the  articles  written 
by  our  old  and  distinguished  friend.  Rev.  Peter  Doub,  in  reply  to 
some  of  the  thousand  and  one  unblushing  falsehoods  contained  in  the 
"Iron  Wheel", of  J.  R.  Graves,  of  Nashville.  But  for  the  fact  of  its 
official  adoption  by  the  "Publishing  Society  of  the  Baptist  Church* 


XVI  PREFACE. 

in  North  Carolina,  its  very  gross  slanders  and  vulgar  abuse,  both  of 
the  living  and  the  dead,  entitle  it  to  no  more  notice  at  the  hands  of 
the  leading  men  of  our  Church  than  a  comic  almanac,  that  may  have 
gone  out  of  date,  with  the  death  of  Davy  Crockett !  As,  however,  this 
really  filthi/  book  is  recognized  as  a  standard  work  on  Methodism,  by 
the  pious  and  peace-promoting  "Publishing  Society  of  the  Baptist 
Church"  in  the  old  North  State,  it  is  due  to  them  that  they  should  see 
how  many  revolting  falsehoods  they  have  endorsed,  and  what  sort  of 
a  man  they  have  selected  to  edit  religious  works  for  them  !  You  must, 
then,  undertake  a  defence  of  Methodism,  and  an  exposure  of  Graves 
and  his  endorsers.  It  is  agreed  on  all  hands  that  i/ou  are  the  man  for 
this  "work  of  faith  and  labor  of  love" — a  castigation  these  accusers 
of  the  brethren  have  so  richly  merited. 

Among  the  several  letters  received  from  different  States,  none 
has  had  more  influence  in  determining  the  author  to  prepare  this 
•work  than  one  from  Albany  in  Georgia,  from  which  an  extract 
only  is  given : — 

Reverend  Sir: — Your  friends  and  the  friends  of  Methodism  in 
Georgia  very  generally  desire  you  to  show  up  Graves  and  his  "Iron 
Wheel,"  either  through  your  journal  or  in  a  separate  publication. 
J.  L.  Baker,  the  pastor  of  the  Baptist  church  here,  is  publishing 
eulogies  of  this  miserable  volume  of  lies  through  the  "  Tennessee 
Baptist,"  and  representing  to  Graves  that  his  book  "has  given  to 
Methodism  a  terrible  shock  in  these  parts."  I  quote  from  memory. 
Others  are  saying  that  the  "Wheel"  is  unanswerable,  and  that  the 
Methodist  ministers  are  not  able  to  answer  it ;  and,  if  they  are,  that 
they  are  afraid  to  undertake  Graves  !  I  tell  all  such  that  you  will  yet 
undertake  the  work,  and  that  when  you  do,  they  will  see  their  man 
Graves  in  quite  a  different  light.  A  book  written  in  your  best  and 
severest  style — for  he  deserves  no  child's  play — will  sell  rapidly  and 
extensively  in  Georgia.  Indeed,  an  entire  edition  can  be  sold  in 
Georgia!  Such  a  work  by  you,  thrown  into  this  market  by  next 
spring,  would  destroy  the  religious  comforts  of  that  class  of  Baptists 
who  delight  in  retailing  the  slanders  of  such  men  as  Graves.  We  look 
anxiously  for  the  work  ! 

The  author  could  multiply  similar  extracts  from  letters  re- 


PREFACE.  XVll 

ceived  from  gentlemen  in  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  and 
even  Texas,  to  an  almost  indefinite  extent ;  but  the  foregoing  will 
be  deemed  amply  sufficient.  He  repeats,  that  in  presenting  this 
work  to  his  fellow-countrymen  of  the  South  and  South-west,  he 
does  it  not  with  a  cold  indifi'erence,  but  with  his  most  ardent 
wishes  for  their  enlightenment  and  prosperity,  and  for  the  con- 
tinued increase  of  the  piety,  learning,  and  the  social,  political, 
moral  and  religious  elevation  of  the  several  Protestant  denomina- 
tions of  Christians  in  our  country. 

Knoxville,  March,  1856. 


THE 


(( 


GREAT  IRO?(  lYHEEL^^  EXAMINED, 


CHAPTER  I. 


Graves  seeking  notoriety — Desires  a  controversy  with  Dr.  M'Ferrin — 
Has  the  impudence  to  address  Forty  Epistles  to  Bishop  Soule — Edits 
the  Tennessee  Baptist — The  nature  and  character  of  the  man  to  be 
fully  disclosed  in  the  sequel. 


Who  lias  not  heard  tlie  name,  and  read  more  or  less  about 
the  discussions,  abuse,  and  bigoted  intolerance  of  the  notorious 
and  self-conceited  J.  R.  Graves,  editor  of  the  "Tennessee 
Baptist  I"  Entering  upon  the  career  of  his  public  life  some 
twelve  or  fifteen  years  ago,  figuring  now  in  Kentucky  and  then 
in  Tennessee,  at  a  time  of  religious  excitement  and  of  deep 
interest  among  partisans — taking  an  active  part  in  and  most 
generally  conducting  the  abusive  and  more  ungentlemanly 
parts  of  the  controversies  which  from  time  to  time  have 
agitated  the  Churches — possessing  talents  of  only  an  ordinary 
grade,  and  these  overrated  in  consequence  of  his  bold,  daring, 
insolent;  and  really  irreligious  temperament  and  demeanor — 
having  a  heart,  as  I  honestly  believe,  unrenewed  by  grace, 
and  deeply  imbued  with  the  hatred,  malice,  and  ambition  of 
a  man  seeking  to  rally  to  his  standard  a  host  of  sectarian  bigots 
— a  nature  inclining  him  to  battle  and  skirmish  among  sects  for 
the  sake  of  glory — this  man  Graves,  I  say,  has  occupied  an 

(19) 


20        THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

unenviable  position  in  society,  and  made  a  conspicuous  figure 
among  a  class  of  men  who,  like  himself,  have  fomented  brawls 
wherever  they  have  figured ;  and  likewise  done  much  toward 
increasing  the  hatred  and  zeal  of  ignorant  Baptists  and  bad 
men  toward  Methodism,  and  impeding  the  progress  of  the 
pure  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 

J.  R.  Graves  edits  the  "  Tennessee  Baptist"  at  Nashville,  a 
paper  published  at  Nashville,  having  quite  a  large  circulation, 
and  being  now  in  the  twelfth  year  of  its  existence.  His  paper 
is  a  low,  dirty,  scurrilous  sheet,  and  is  so  regarded  by  many 
of  the  intelligent  Baptists  of  the  country,  who  refuse  to 
patronize  it.  And  why?  Because,  as  they  say,  it  is  con- 
ducted by  a  man  who  cannot  elevate  himself  above  the  level 
of  a  common  blackguard — a  man  who  habitually  indulges  in 
language  toward  other  Christian  denominations  which  would 
hardly  be  tolerated  within  the  precincts  of  Billingsgate,  or 
the  lowest  fish-market  in  London  !  No  epithet  is  too  low,  too 
degrading,  or  disgraceful,  to  be  applied  to  the  bishops,  minis- 
ters, and  usages  of  the  Methodist  Church.  The  contempora- 
ries of  the  "Baptist"  usually  shun  coming  into  contact  with 
it  as  they  would  avoid  a  night-cart,  or  other  vehicle  of  filth; 
and  decent  men  of  the  Baptist  persuasion  have  been  known 
to  throw  the  slanderous  sheet  from  their  doors  with  shovel  or 
tongs,  disdaining  to  touch  it  with  their  hands.  As  some  fish 
are  said  to  thrive  only  in  muddy  water,  so  the  paper  of  which 
I  am  speaking  would  not  exist  one  year  out  of  the  atmosphere 
of  slang  and  vituperation.  It  administers  to  the  very  worst 
appetites  of  mankind;  and  whether  speaking  of  the  most 
eminent  bishop  or  minister,  the  purest  of  the  sainted  dead, 
the  venerable  Founder  of  Methodism,  or  the  excellent  insti- 
tutions of  said  Church,  it  pursues  the  same  strain  of  vulgar 
and  disgusting  abuse.  It  is  enough  for  a  man,  woman,  or 
child  to  have  been  baptized  by  a  Methodist  minister,  or  by 
one  received   into  their  Church,  to  insure   the  ill-will  and 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  21 

contemptuous  denunciations  of  the  editor  of  that  vehicle  of 
falsehood  and  defamation;  whilst,  on  the  other  hand,  he  can 
see  no  demerit  in  one  who  has  been  immersed  by  a  Baptist 
preacher,  and  he  can  take  into  his  fellowship  a  prostitute, 
and  hug  to  his  bosom  a  burglar,  if  they  have  been  baptized 
by  immersion !  With  him,  the  Baptist  Church  is  the  only 
kingdom  of  God  on  earth,  and  to  find  fault  with  any  of  its 
doctrines,  ordinances,  or  abusive  preachers,  is  to  sin  against 
the  Holy  Ghost !  With  him,  no  virtue,  no  honor,  no  truth, 
exists  anywhere  but  in  the  breasts  of  partisans  of  his  own 
^' faith  and  order,"  and  novice  or  immorality  is  found  but 
with  the  members  of  other  Churches.  He  would  surrender 
his  religion  (if  he  ever  had  any !)  and  deny  his  God,  if  it 
would  bring  him  in  money,  or  build  him  up  a  faction  of  which 
he  could  remain  the  acknowledged  head.  Whilst  such  men 
continue  in  the  control  of  a  public  newspaper,  passing  as  a 
Church  organ,  ministers  and  members  of  other  Churches  can 
have  no  justice  at  their  hands,  and  the  courtesies  of  life  and 
the  principles  of  honor  will  continue  to  be  violated.  Believ- 
ing this,  the  more  intelligent  and  pious  portion  of  the  Baptist 
membership  in  Nashville  seriously  contemplate  setting  on  foot 
a  decent  religious  paper.  From  this  or  some  other  cause,  the 
intelligent  and  high-toned  portion  of  the  Baptists  of  East 
Tennessee  have  started,  at  Knoxville,  the  ^^  Baptist  Watch- 
man," which  is  being  edited  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hillsman; 
while  other  leading  Baptist  journals,  in  different  States,  as  I 
shall  hereafter  show,  openly  denounce  this  man  Graves  as  the 
false  accuser  of  his  brethren,  and  hold  up  his  paper  as  a 
malignant  vehicle  through  which  its  editor  sends  out  his 
illogical  conclusions,  loosely  prepared  misstatements,  elabo- 
rated perversions,  and  atrocious  falsehoods.  Several  leading 
Baptist  journals  have  come  out  and  avowed  that  for  Graves 
they  have  no  sympathy,  and  no  feelings  but  those  of  scorn 
and  contempt ! 


22  THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

With  a  view  to  gain  as  much  notoriety  as  possible,  the 
noted  Graves  has  challenged  first  one  minister  and  then 
another,  of  different  denominations,  to  meet  him  in  public 
discussions  touching  the  mode  and  subjects  of  Christian 
Baptism,  and  the  several  forms  of  Church  government  under 
which  they  are  associated ;  and  in  these  squabbles,  generally, 
he  has  violated  the  courtesies  of  debate,  zigzagged  through  a 
mass  of  contradictions  and  inconsistencies :  in  his  wayward- 
ness and  vanity,  he  has  grown  from  bad  to  worse,  fomenting 
neighborhood  brawls  wherever  he  has  met  a  competitor,  until 
he  has  become  a  sort  of  Hindoo  leader  of  the  warlike  wing 
of  his  Church.  In  almost  every  public  discussion  he  ever 
had,  he  came  off  second  best,  though,  in  Ms  account  of  his 
several  engagements,  he  was  victorious,  storming  the  ^^  Sebas- 
topol'^  of  the  enemy,  and  placing  liors  du  combat  all  the 
staff  officers  and  superior  officers  who  dared  to  lead  their 
troops  to  the  attack !  He  has,  in  the  course  of  his  career, 
avoided  being  driven  back  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  on 
more  occasions  than  one,  by  deserting  his  '^advanced  trenches,^' 
and  by  ^^  scaling  the  parapet  and  penetrating  into  the  interior 
of  the  redoubt.'^  Indeed,  his  bump  of  caution  has  led  him 
to  dodge  sundry  '^  engagements,"  on  the  ground  that 

"He  that  fights  and  runs  away 
Will  live  to  fight  another  day." 

From  the  time  he  first  came  to  Nashville,  and  undertook  the 
editorial  management  of  his  "  Tennessee  Baptist,"  until  now, 
he  has  sought,  by  coaxing,  by  attacks,  and  by  unblushing  false- 
hoods, to  draw  Br.  John  B.  M'Ferrin,  the  able,  gentlemanly, 
truly  Christian  editor  of  the  '^Advocate,"  one  of  the  official 
organs  of  the  Methodist  Church,  South,  into  a  controversy 
with  him.  Br.  M'Ferrin  has  never  gone  through  the  for- 
malities of  an  introduction  to  the  man — never,  I  believe,  even 
spoken  to  him.     It  is,  however,  very  evident  that  the  cour« 


THE   GREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  23 

teous  editor  of  the  "Advocate^^  has  experienced  no  incon- 
siderable solicitude  in  his  endeavors  to  avoid  a  personal 
controversy  with  such  a  man.  Time  after  time  he  passed  by 
the  malignant  attacks  of  Graves  with  the  most  extraordinary 
forbearance,  considering  the  skill  and  acknowledged  ability 
of  the  Doctor  to  overturn  the  illogical  conclusions  of  Graves, 
his  bungling  falsehoods,  elaborated  perversions  of  truth,  and 
the  smallness  of  his  calibre.  Not  observing  the  tone  of 
moderation  and  truth  in  the  conduct  of  his  paper,  the  editor 
of  the  ^'Advocate"  does  not,  I  presume,  exchange  with  him,  or 
read  his  paper.  The  policy  which  has  been  followed  by  the 
conductor  of  the  organ  of  the  General  Conference,  at  Nash- 
ville, of  treating  such  assaults  with  the  contempt  they  deserve, 
and  leaving  the  shafts  of  malice  to  rebound  upon  the  assailant, 
I  feel  confident  has  been  the  proper  course,  and,  I  am  now 
convinced,  has  met  with  the  approval  of  the  Church,  but 
especially  with  the  Methodist  community  in  and  around  Nash- 
ville, icho  hnow  Graves! 

The  whole  tenor  of  Graves's  course,  editorially,  has  been 
that  of  a  vagabond  politician  who  expected  to  live  only  by 
excitement — making  ruffian-like  attacks  upon  private  charac- 
ter, committing  all  manner  of  excesses,  standing  preeminent 
in  selecting  themes  for  lying,  and  the  lowest  and  most  scurri- 
lous abuse  of  Methodist  preachers.  He  has  made  repeated 
attacks  upon  me,  through  his  paper,  with  a  view  to  engage  me 
in  a  controversy  upon  points  of  doctrine  and  Church  polity. 
I  was  engaged  in  defence  of  one  of  the  political  parties  of  the 
country,  and  in  promoting  the  internal  improvement  schemes 
of  our  State,  and  did  not  choose  to  occupy  my  columns  in  a 
controversy  of  this  kind  with  a  humiliating  spectacle  of  vice 
and  depravity  literally  crawling  in  the  dust  of  contention ! 
This  unwillingness  of  mine  to  bandy  epithets  with  an  inflated 
gasometer,  whose  brain  I  believed  to  be  a  mass  of  living,  creep* 
ing,  crawling,  writhing,  twisting,  turning,  loathsome  vermin,  he 


2i  THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED. 

politely  construed  into  a  want  of  courage  on  my  part  to 
encounter  the  caitiff  of  the  "Tennessee  Baptist."  I  confess 
to  a  want  of  moral  courage  to  meet  one  who  eats  carrion  like 
the  buzzard,  and  then  vomits  the  mass  of  corruption  upon 
decent  human  beings ! 

There  is  a  point,  however,  at  which  even  such  assaults 
become  harmful,  and  deserve  rebuke.  The  appropriate 
quarter  from  which  such  rebuke  should  emanate  would  seem 
to  be  a  member  of  the  Church  this  bad  man  has  sought 
to  vilify,  and  a  member  of  the  editorial  fraternity.  Under 
this  conviction,  I  have  taken  him  in  hand;  and  by  the  time 
I  am  through  with  the  task,  I  flatter  myself  that  I  will  be 
able  to  satisfy  the  candid  and  impartial  of  every  sect,  that 
the  aforesaid  editor  of  the  "  Tennessee  Baptist,"  and  author 
of  the  "Great  Iron  Wheel,"  has  no  reverence  whatever  for 
truth,  and  that  his  warped  and  biased  soul  has  been  steeped 
in  infamous  falsehoods  and  vile  calumnies  during  the  greater 
part  of  his  inglorious  career ! 

Through  the  columns  of  the  "  Tennessee  Baptist"  this  man 
addressed  a  series  of  FORTY  Letters  to  "Joshua  Soule, 
Senior  Bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South;"  and,  at  the  earnest  solicitations  of  "thousands  who 
read  many  of  them"  in  his  paper,  he  places  them  before  the 
world  in  book  form,  constituting  a  volume  of  570  pages. 
These  "star  papers,"  then,  any  thing  but  creditable  to  the 
character  of  a  clergyman,  have  been  ostentatiously  paraded  in 
a  book,  interspersed  with  pictures  ridiculing  and  misrepre- 
senting every  feature  of  Methodism,  which,  of  course,  receive 
the  praises  of  such  sectarians  as  envy  a  moral  excellence  they 
cannot  imitate.  This  last  effort,  perhaps  the  culminating 
point  of  his  glory,  has  even  met  with  the  sanction  of  the 
"Baptist  Publishing  Society  of  North  Carolina." 

The  venerable  "  Senior  Bishop,"  though  residing  in  the 
vicinity  of  Nashville,  it  is  within  my  certain  knowledge,  up 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  25 

to  this  good  hour  never  has  perused  one  of  these  FORTY 
epistles,  or  any  portion  of  one  of  them.  What  a  rebuke ! 
And  I  put  the  question,,  in  all  candor,  to  men  of  reflection, 
Ought  Bishop  Soule  to  have  done  otherwise  than  treat  with 
the  most  unmitigated  contempt  any  thing  and  every  thing 
coming  from  the  pen  of  y.  r.  gravest?  Bishop  Soule  enter 
into  a  controversy  with  a  man  daily  in  the  practice  of  dis- 
carding the  ordinary  restraints  of  society  I  Bishop  Soule, 
the  scholar  and  Christian  divine,  of  dignified  ministerial 
bearing,  and  of  unblemished  personal  and  ministerial  charac- 
ter, the  venerable  and  venerated  Superintendent  of  a  great 
and  popular  Church,  who  has  ministered  at  her  altars  for 
more  than  half  a  century,  condescend  to  controvert  great 
questions  with  a  clerked  Uachguard,  whose  grovelling  pas- 
sions assume  full  sway  on  all  occasions,  and  whose  innumera- 
ble moral  delinquencies  are  enveloped  in  clouds  of  moral 
prostitution — lost  to  every  truly  Christian  restraint,  degraded 
in  his  taste,  immoral  in  some  of  his  practices,  villainous  in 
his  nature,  corrupt  in  his  principles,  sold  to  the  enemy  of 
God  and  man,  and  displaying,  in  all  his  hideous  deformity, 
how  pitiful,  how  sordid,  how  little,  and  how  wretched  is  this 
apology  for  a  Christian  minister  ! 

Think  of  a  tom-tit  challenging  to  mortal  combat  a  hawk! — 
of  a  monkey  encountering  an  elephant  I — or  of  a  miserable  owl 
threatening  to  demolish  the  soaring  eagle,  the  ''proud  Bird 
of  Liberty,"  who,  soaring  above  the  mountains  and  leaving 
the  clouds  beneath  her  shadow,  and  basking  still  higher  in  the 
full  blaze  of  the  sun,  and,  while  thus  employed,  scarcely 
remembers  the  dust  she  shook  from  her  feet  I  Think  of  an 
astronomer^  when  engaged  looking  at  the  moon  and  stars, 
almost  forgetting  this  little  globe :  his  great  mind  nearly 
absorbed,  and  his  imagination  carrying  him  beyond  those 
bright  regions  to  the  great  Author  of  the  universe,  whose 
glory  fills  the  heavens,  and  whose  eyes  see  all  things,  from 


20  THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED. 

the  tallest  seraph  to  the  least  reptile  or  insect  in  his  vast 
dominions — think  of  such  a  one  condescending  to  controvert, 
astronomical  truths  with  an  uneducated  mill-hoi/ !  Think  of 
these  contrasts,  gentle  reader,  and  then  with  me  turn  your 
eyes  to  one  still  more  striking — that  of  BisiiOP  SouLE  contro- 
verting points  of  religious  faith  and  practice  with  J.  R.  Graves! 
After  this  introductory  chapter,  I  shall  proceed  to  notice 
the  contents  of  the  ''Iron  Wheel;"  and  in  the  conclusion  of 
the  work,  I  will  deal  upon  my  adversary  blows  undoubtedly 
warranted  by  his  assaults,  and  clearly  within  the  range 
justified  by  strict  defence.  The  Carthaginian  general  was 
of  opinion  that  it  was  a  legitimate  defence  of  Carthage  to 
carry  the  war  into  the  territories  and  to  the  gates  of  Rome ; 
and  had  he  been  duly  sustained,  Rome  would  have  been  razed 
instead  of  Carthage,  and  from  the  pens  of  Carthaginian  his- 
torians, Romana  fides  might  have  been  handed  down  for  the 
execration  of  posterity,  in  the  place  of  Puiiica  fides,  I  say 
to  this  war-horse,  in  the  language  of  Hamlet : 

Be  thou  a  spirit  of  health,  or  goblin  damned, 

Bring  with  thee  airs  from  heaven,  or  blasts  from  hell, 

Be  thy  intents  wicked,  or  charitable. 

Thou  com'st  in  such  a  questionable  shape, 

That  I  will  speak  to  thee. 

Take  J.  R.  Graves  in  his  length  and  breadth,  in  his  height 
and  depth,  in  his  convexity  and  concavity,  in  his  manners  and 
in  his  propensities,  and  he  is  a  very  little  man ;  but  in  that 
littleness  there  is  combined  all  that  is  oflfensive  and  disagree- 
able among  Christian  gentlemen.  For  several  years  past,  in 
portions  of  several  States,  with  an  unearthly  din,  this  man 
has  been  barking,  neighing,  bleating,  braying,  mewing,  puflf- 
ing,  swaggering,  strutting;  and  in  every  situation,  an  offen- 
sive smell,  to  gentlemen  of  refined  tastes  and  Christian  habits, 
has  gone  out  from  him  !  And  believing  the  homely  old 
adage,  that  "  he  w^ho  lies  down  with  dogs  must  rise  up  with 
fieas,"  he  has  been  permitted  to  pass  unwhipped  by  justice. 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  27 


CHAPTER  II. 

Elder  Graves  misrepresents  Mr.  Wesley's  views  —  These  slanders 
endorsed  by  the  North  Carolina  Publishing  Society — Mr.  Wesley's 
difficulties  in  Savannah — Indicted  by  a  jury  for  repelling  a  lady 
from  the  holy  communion — Twelve  of  the  jurors  defend  him — His 
return  to  England — Some  beautiful  incidents  in  the  life  of  Elder 
Graves ! 

On  page  102  of  the  '^ Wheel,"  under  the  caption  of 
"  Methodism  in  G-eorgia  in  1736/'  Elder  Graves,  as  he  is 
called  by  the  ^^  North  Carolina  Publishing  Society  of  the 
Baptist  Church/'  attacks,  in  a  coarse,  vulgar,  and  ungentle- 
manly  manner,  the  private  and  ministerial  character  of  John 
AVesley  ;  and  after  making  him  out  a  very  bad  man,  says 
that  he  can  bear  testimony  that  his  people  in  America  are 
like  him — thus  reflecting  upon  the  personal  integrity  and 
Christian  character  of  all  who  identify  themselves  with  the 
Church  which,  under  God,  was  founded  by  this  great  and 
good  man  !  As  this  clerical  calumniator  makes  war  upon  the 
now  sainted  founder  of  Methodism,  charging  him  to  have 
been  a  corrupt  man,  and  arguing  therefrom  a  want  of  virtue 
and  integrity  on  the  part  of  his  numerous  followers  in  Europe 
and  America,  I  have  deemed  it  proper  to  consider  this  issue 
in  the  early  part  of  this  work — not  considering  his  numerous 
falsehoods  in  the  consecutive  order  in  which  they  appear. 
If  I  shall  succeed  in  satisfying  the  candid  and  impartial 
reader  that  John  Wesley  was  a  great  and  good  man,  whose 
labors  were   owned   and   blessed    of  God   in   a   preeminent 


28  THE   (lllEAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

degree,  and  that  he  was  not  that  vile  hypocrite  and  adulterous 
sinner  he  is  represented  to  have  been  by  this  man  Graves,  why 
then  his  charges  against  the  members  of  the  Methodist  Church 
generally,  fall  harmless  at  their  feet ! 

The  sentences  from  Mr.  Wesley's  Journal,  as  quoted  by 
Elder  Graves,  are  not  exactly  nonsensical;  but  wicked  injustice 
is  done  to  a  deceased  author,  by  interpolations  and  by  omis- 
sions. This  fact  alone  presents,  though  imperfectly,  the 
disingenuousness  of  the  quotations,  and  the  character  of  the 
man.  lie  knew  that  not  one  in  ten  of  his  readers  would  ever 
see  Mr.  "Wesley's  Journal,  and  that  not  one-third  of  his 
readers  would  likely  ever  see  any  reply  that  might  come  from 
the  pen  of  a  Methodist  preacher.  His  villainy,  of  which  I 
complain,  and  for  which  he  deserves  to  be  driven  from  decent 
society,  consists  in  separating  the  sentences  he  frequently 
quotes,  from  that  portion  of  the  chain  of  thought  and  argu- 
ment with  which  they  were  connected;  in  other  words,  in 
garbling  them — an  operation  which,  according  to  lexicogra- 
phers, is  "fo  pick  out  wJiat  may  suit  a  purpose.^'  This  ope- 
ration renders  nearly  all  his  quotations  false,  and  many  of 
them  everi/  way  false — false  by  suppression,  false  by  denial^ 
and  false  by  misrepresentation.  Though  not  a  lawyer,  I 
nevertheless  possess  enough  of  legal  knowledge  to  warrant  the 
assertion,  that  it  is  a  principle  in  municipal  law  that  the 
suppression  of  truth  is  equivalent  to  the  expression  of  false- 
hood; or,  as  the  law-books  express  it,  ^'the  former  is  more 
artful  knavery."  In  Paley's  System  of  Moral  and  Political 
Philosophy,  the  same  sentiment  is  corroborated  in  strong  and 
unmistakable  language ;  and  in  the  Bible,  upon  which  Elder 
Graves  professes  to  build  his  hopes  of  eternal  life,  we  find 
the  same  idea  perfected. 

Now,  I  have  seen  with  regret  a  card  in  the  ^'Biblical 
Recorder,"  a  partisan  paper  published  at  Raleigh,  N.  C,  in 
which  a  Committee,  on  behalf  of  the  <^  Baptist  Publication 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  29 

Society  of  North  Carolina,"  acting,  as  they  say,  under  the 
appointment  of  that  Society,  and  doing  what  the  Society 
directed — I  say  I  have  seen  in  this  card,  or  ''challenge,"  a 
full  endorsement  of  the  flimsy,  slanderous,  and  disingenuous 
production  on  which  I  am  commenting.  Nay,  this  Committee 
commends  to  public  favor  the  "Iron  Wheel,"  and  challenges 
Methodist  ministers  to  defend  themselves  and  their  Church 
against  its  assaults !  This  endorsement,  I  will  demonstrate 
before  I  close  this  volume,  is  any  thing  but  creditable  to  the 
Christian  patriotism  and  gentlemanly  bearing  of  these  pious 
lovers  of  truth,  charged  with  this  "  work  of  faith,  and  labor  of 
love,"  by  the  "Baptist  Publication  Society  of  North  Carolina." 

In  this  connection,  and  lest  the  idea  escape  my  mind,  I 
will  submit  two  questions  only  to  the  members  of  this  Com- 
mittee. Are  there  not,  in  the  world,  false  doctrines  and 
wicked  practices  enough  to  employ  the  time  and  talents  of 
their  reforming  brethren  of  the  "Publishing  Society,"  without 
wasting  their  strength  on  the  "polity  and  doctrines  of 
Methodism,"  even  admitting  that  they  may  not  be  all  they 
could  desire?  And  can  it  be  a  commendable  work  of  Chris- 
tian piety,  for  such  cause,  or  in  retaliation  for  supposed  wrongs, 
to  endeavor  to  spread  and  foment  disaffection  among  those 
who  at  present  may  be  peaceful  as  neighbors,  and  satisfied 
with  their  Church  relations?  If  human  passion  be  consulted, 
which  I  think  in  all  likelihood  governed  the  "Publishing 
Society,"  I  know  the  answer.  If,  on  the  contrary,  we  consult 
conscience  and  the  Divine  word,  with  an  eye  to  eternity,  the 
answer  will  be  different. 

Now,  all  this  abuse  of  Mr.  "Wesley's  private  and  ministerial 
character,  this  misrepresentation  of  Methodist  polity,  and  this 
array  of  pictures,  caricaturing  Methodisti  itinerancy,  in  which 
-its  beauties  are  concealed,  and  its  blemishes  are  exaggerated, 
— ^this,  I  say,  may  all  be  very  amusing  to  my  gracious  brethren 
of  the  Baptist  Church.     They  may  laugh  in  their  sleeves  at 


80  THE   GREAT   IROxN    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

the  depravity  that  cau  suggest  such  ideas ;  the  meaning  smile 
may  liglit  up  their  countenances,  and  they  may  even  rejoice 
with  the  same  assurance  with  wliich  the  untutored  savage 
exults,  while  he  sings  his  favorite  triumph  of  death  around 
the  bonfire  he  has  enkindled  for  his  dying  captive ;  but  is 
there  illustrated  in  it  the  spirit  of  Christ  Jesus,  the  charity 
''that  hopeth  all  things,"  or  thut  " thinkelh  no  evil?"  Is 
there  displayed  in  all  this  the  manly,  ingenuous  feeling  of 
brotherly  love  and  Christian  probity  ? 

But  our  champion  of  the  ''Wheel"  I  am  endeavoring  to 
take  the  spokes  out  of,  commences  the  chapter  under  conside- 
ration with  this  heading,  in  part : — ^'  Trouble  with  a  lady — 
Mr.  Wesley  a  rejected  lover — His  revenge — Is  apprehendedj 
tried,  and  condemned — Flees  from  justice,  and  leaves  Sa- 
vannah hy  night — Seeks  the  sea-coast,  and  sails  for  England.'^ 

Further  on  in  the  chapter,  he  adds,  ^'We  can  testify  that 
LIKE  FOUNDER,  LIKE  PEOPLE;"  and  continues,  "It  was  so 
with  their  father  John,  whether  in  England  or  Georgia!" 
This  blackguard  allusion  is  made  in  reference  to  the  diflSculty 
with  the  lady,  namely,  that  she  "swore  to  and  signed  an  affi- 
davit, intimating  much  more  than  it  asserted^' — italicising 
just  as  I  have  done ! 

The  only  remaining  quotations  I  need  give  from  this 
chapter,  are  these  two  : 

Mr.  Wesley  is  tried  by  a  grand  jury  of  forty-four,  upon  an  indict- 
ment of  ten  specifications,  and  the  jury  was  charged  to  beware  of 
spiritual  tyranny,  and  to  oppose  the  new  illegal  authority  which  was 
•usurjjed  over  their  conscierices.  Mr.  Wesley  was  naturally  tyrannical. 
The  jury  found  a  true  bill  against  John,  the  founder  of  Methodism, 
for  his  conduct  towards  Mrs.  Williamson,  and  nine  other  charges. 
Poor  man,  he  was  surrounded  by  difficulties — unconverted,  unmarried, 
a  woman  prosecuting  him  for  his  conduct  towards  her,  far  from  home, 
and  his  own  people  thoroughly  disgusted  with  his  conduct,  and  out- 
raged by  his  arrogance  and  imperial  dictation  1 ! 

What  does  the  great  Wesley  think  of  running  away  from  America, 
and  away  from  a  court  trial,  for  the  ill  treatment  of  a  woman,  and 
unwarrantable  spiritual  dictation,  and  a  public  nuisance  ?  ! ! 


THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED.        81 

In  the  profusion  of  vilification  heaped  upon  the  venerable 
founder  of  Methodism  by  Elder  Graves,  I  might  be  expected 
to  quote  more  largely ;  but  as  the  extracts  I  have  given  set 
forth  the  points  to  which  I  will  be  expected  to  reply,  candid 
and  sensible  men  will  not  expect  me  to  quote  more  largely 
from  the  vituperation,  and  most  wanton  personal  attacks,  of 
this  last  and  filthiest  of  assailants.  True,  from  first  to  last, 
he  embodies  most  of  the  slang  against  Mr.  Wesley,  of 
Southey,  Sraollet,  Nightingale,  Lord  John  Russel,  and  even 
F.  A.  Eoss ;  and  in  many  instances  without  giving  these,  his 
^'illustrious  predecessors,''  the  proper  credit. 

I  must  ask  the  indulgence  of  the  reader,  for  extending  this 
chapter  to  a  length  I  would  gladly  have  avoided.  It  treats 
of  the  most  important  event  in  the  life  of  Mr.  Wesley — his 
residence  of  near  two  years  in  Georgia,  his  difficulties  while 
there,  and  certain  legal  proceedings  instituted  against  him — 
every  particular  of  which  is  misrepresented  by  this  man 
Graves,  and  none  of  which,  when  properly  understood,  reflects 
the  least  dishonor  upon  Mr.  Wesley. 

I  premise  further,  that  I  gather  all  my  facts  from  the  Life 
of  the  Rev.  John  Wesley,  by  Rev.  John  Whitehead, 
M.  B.,  the  author  of  the  discourse  delivered  at  Mr.  Wesley's 
funeral,  by  appointment  of  a  Committee,  his  brother  in  the 
ministry,  and  a  physician  who  stood  by  his  bedside  when  he 
breathed  his  last.  I  have  before  me  the  London  edition, 
printed  by  Stephen  Conchman,  MDCCXCIII.  When  the 
Methodist  Conference  assembled  in  London,  in  August,  1792, 
after  the  death  of  Mr.  Wesley,  the  Committee  met  and 
resolved  in  favor  of  Dr.  Whitehead  executing  this  work,  and 
which  was  not  at  variance  with  the  following  extract  from  Mr. 
Wesley's  last  will  and  testament : 

^'I  GIVE  all  my  manuscripts  to  Thomas  Coke,  Doctor 
Whitehead,  and  Henry  Moore,  to  be  burnt  or  published, 
B&  they  see  good."    (See  Arminiaa  ^lagazine    for  January, 


32  THE  grp:at  iron  wueel  examined. 

1792,  page  29.)  I  am  the  more  particular  in  stating  that  1 
resort  to  Dr.  Whitehead's  Life  of  Wesley,  because  some  of 
the  friends  of  Mr.  Wesley,  and  of  Methodism,  both  in  Europe 
and  America,  have  objected  to  the  work,  on  the  ground  that 
it  gives  both  the  (jood  and  the  hady  in  reference  to  his  life 
and  labors — if  I  may  be  allowed  the  use  of  such  terms  in 
reference  to  such  a  man. 

The  settlement  of  a  colony  between  the  rivers  Savannah 
and  Alatamaha,  was  meditated  in  England  in  1732,  for  the 
accommodation  of  poor  people  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland, 
and  for  the  further  security  of  Carolina.  Humane  and  wealthy 
men  suggested  a  plan  of  transporting  a  number  of  poor 
families  to  this  part  of  America,  free  of  expense.  For  this 
purpose  they  applied  to  the  king,  George  II.,  and  obtained 
from  him  letters  patent,  bearing  date  June  9th,  1732,  for 
legally  carrying  into  execution  their  project.  They  called  the 
new  province  Georgia,  in  honor  of  the  king,  who  favored  the 
scheme.  A  corporation  of  21  persons  was  constituted  by  the 
name  of  *'The  Trustees  for  establishing  the  Colony  of 
Georgia."  In  November,  1732,  116  settlers  embarked  for 
Georgia,  conveyed  thither  free  of  expense,  and  furnished  with 
every  thing  requisite  for  building,  and  cultivating  the  soil. 
James  Oglethorpe,  one  of  the  Trustees,  and  an  active  pro- 
moter of  the  enterprise,  embarked  as  the  head  of  these 
settlers,  and  they  arrived  at  Charles^o«£;?i,  as  Charleston  was 
then  called,  early  in  the  next  year.  It  was  on  the  6th  of 
February,  1736,  Mr.  Wesley  first  set  foot  on  American  ground, 
on  a  small  uninhabited  island  over  against  Ti/hee,  and  thence 
took  a  boat  for  Savannah.  He  entered  on  his  ministry  at 
Savannah,  Sunday,  March  7th,  1736.  In  December,  1738, 
he  took  leave  of  America  for  England,  having  preached  the 
gospel  at  Savannah  one  year  and  nine  months.  He 
arrived  there,  it  will  be  seen,  120  years  ago,  as  a  missionary, 
and  a  minister  of  the  Established  Church  of  England.     He 


THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED.        33 

came  over  on  board  the  Simmons,  commauded  by  Mr,  Ogle- 
thorpe— all  which  is  set  forth  in  his  Journal. 

Feeling  a  deep  interest  in  every  event  connected  with  the 
history  of  Mr.  Wesley,  and  being  a  great  admirer  of  the  man, 
when  in  Savannah,  several  years  ago,  I  visited  the  wharf,  in 
the  business  portion  of  that  city,  where  he  first  landed,  and 
viewed  the  spot.  I  have  also  been  in  the  large  livery  stable, 
on  the  corner  of  President  and  Whitaker  streets,  where  Mr. 
Wesley's  chapel  stood — where  he  regularly  preached  and 
administered  the  sacraments ;  and  the  very  spot  on  which  he 
gave  offence  to  an  aristocratic  family,  by  repelling  a  Mrs. 
Williamson  from  the  holy  communion,  the  particulars  and 
facts  of  which  will  hereafter  appear.  The  old  Fort  Frederica, 
five  miles  below,  one  of  Mr.  Wesley's  regular  preaching- 
places,is  still  standing — the  identical  house — and  is  a  venera- 
ble specimen  of  British  architecture.  Close  by,  among  the 
cypress  swamps,  is  TTiimderhoU,  another  of  his  preaching- 
places,  to  both  of  which  he  was  accustomed  to  tvalk,  for 
bodily  exercise.  In  that  vicinity  stands  a  portion  of  the 
"Whitefield  Orphan  Home,"  which,  but  a  few  years  ago, 
was  used  as  a  kitchen,  and  was  the  property  of  a  Methodist 
preacher.  When  I  was  last  in  Savannah,  He  v.  Mr.  Godfrey, 
a  worthy  Methodist  minister,  presented  me  with  a  walking- 
stick,  made  of  a  portion  of  the  English  cherry  bedstead  on 
which  Mr.  Whitefield  slept,  and  which  he  brought  over  from 
England ! 

The  descendants  of  Mr.  Wesley's  persecutors  are  still  living 
in  Savannah — the  Williamsons  and  Caustons — clever^  intelli- 
g;ent,  and  respectable  people,  connected  in  part  with  the 
Presbyterian  and  Methodist  Churches.  He  publicly  refused 
to  administer  the  sacrament  to  Mrs.  Williamson,  a  niece  of 
Mr.  Causton,  an  influential  and  respectable  gentleman,  out 
of  which  grew  the  fierce  persecution  so  basely  misrepresented 
by  Elder  Graves.  For  repelling  this  lady  from  the  holy 
2* 


84        THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

communion,  in  his  little  chapel,  a  presentment  was  made  to 
the  Grand  Jury,  containing  ten  ppecifications  or  counts, 
charging  him  with  "breaking  the  laws  of  the  realm,  contrary 
to  the  peace  of  the  sovereign  lord,  the  King,  his  crown  and 
dignity."     These  specifications  were — 


1.  By  speaking  and  -vrriting  to  Mrs.  Williamson,  (relative  to  her 
improprieties,)  against  her  hnsband's  consent. 

2.  By  repelling  her  from  the  holy  communion. 

3.  By  not  declaring  his  adherence  to  the  Church  of  England. 

4.  By  dividing  the  morning  service  on  Sunday. 

5.  By  refusing  to  baptize  Mr.  Parker's  child,  otherwise  than  by 
dipping,  except  the  parents  would  certify  it  was  weak,  and  not  able 
to  bear  it. 

G.  By  repelling  Wm.  Gouch  from  the  holy  communion. 

7.  By  refusing  to  read  the  burial  service  over  the  body  of  Nathaniel 
PolhiU. 

8.  By  calling  himself  Ordinary  of  Savannah  ! 

9.  By  refusing  to  receive  Wm.  Agliondy,  not  a  communicant,  as  a 
godfather. 

10.  By  refusing  Jacob  Mathews  for  the  same  reason,  etc.,  etc. 


Among  the  enemies  of  Mr.  Wesley  at  Savannah,  there  were 
some  desperate  persons,  evidently  as  ill-minded  as  Graves  is ; 
and  their  hatred,  like  that  of  Graves,  rose  to  a  degree  hardly 
credible.  Every  species  of  defamation  likely  to  prejudice  the 
people  against  him  was  propagated  with  diligence.  The 
worst  constructions  which  malignity  itself  could  invent  were 
put  upon  his  actions,  and  reported  as  facts :  it  even  seems 
that  the  giving  away  his  own  private  income  in  acts  of  charity, 
was  construed  into  the  embezzlement  of  the  Society's 
money ! 

And  now,  I  will  let  Dr.  Whitehead  be  heard  in  further 
defence  of  Mr.  Wesley,  and  in  reply  to  the  calumnies  of  Elder 
Graves.  I  quote  from  page  306  to  page  314,  inclusive;  and 
ask  all  who  may  have  read  the  quotations  from  Graves,  to 
"read,  mark,  learn,  and  inwardly  digest,''  the  eight  pages  I 
copy. 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  36 

Mr.  Causton,  the  chief  magistrate  of  Savannah,  seems  to  have  been 
of  a  warm  and  rather  violent  temper:  impatient  of  contradiction, 
overbearing,  and  fickle  in  his  attachments.  He  had  hitherto  not  only 
shown  a  decent  civility  towards  Mr.  Wesley,  but  even  a  friendly 
regard  for  him.  This  regard  seemed  increased  during  a  fever  he  had 
in  the  end  of  June,  in  which  Mr.  Wesley  attended  him  every  day.  On 
the  third  of  July,  Mr.  Wesley  reproved  Mrs.  Williamson  for  some 
things  which  he  thought  wrong  in  her  conduct.  The  reproof  was 
resented  by  the  lady,  who  said  she  did  not  expect  such  usage  from  him. 
This  was  the  beginning  of  strife,  which,  as  the  wise  man  tells  us,  '"is 
as  when  one  lettcth  out  water."  The  next  day  Mrs.  Causton  called, 
and  apologizing  for  the  behavior  of  her  niece,  desired  Mr,  Wesley  to 
inform  Mrs.  Williamson  in  writing  what  he  had  to  object  against  her 
conduct.  He  accordingly  wrote  to  her  on  the  5th,  and  here  the  matter 
rested  for  a  few  weeks.  In  the  meantime,  however,  Mrs.  Williamson 
miscarried,  and  Mrs.  Causton  reported  that  the  miscarriage  was  occa- 
sioned by  Mr.  Wesley's  reproof,  and  the  letter  he  had  sent ;  but  Mrs. 
Williamson  frankly  acknowledged  that,  her  husband  having  been  sick, 
it  was  occasioned  by  the  hurry  and  anxiety  his  sickness  had  produced. 
During  this  time  Mr.  Causton  showed  the  same  friendly  attention  to 
Mr.  Wesley  as  if  nothing  had  happened.  On  this  occasion  Mr. 
Wesley  writes  in  his  private  journal:  "July  23. — The  strange  esteem 
which  Mr.  Causton  seemed  to  show  for  us,  by  which  means  we  had 
nothing  without  but  ease  and  plenty,  occasioned  my  expressing  my- 
self thus  in  a  letter  to  a  friend — 'How  to  attain  the  being  crucified 
with  Christ,  I  find  not ;  being  in  a  condition  which  I  neither  desired 
nor  expected  in  America :  in  ease,  and  honor,  and  abundance.  A 
strange  school  for  him  who  has  but  one  business,  Tvfivu^eiv  aeavrbu 
Kpbt;  evaetSstav.'  "* 

In  the  beginning  of  August,  he  joined  with  the  Germans  in  one  of 
their  love-feasts.  This,  I  believe,  was  the  first  time  he  ever  saw  a 
love-feast.  He  speaks  thus  of  it:  "It  was  begun  and  ended  with 
thanksgiving  and  prayer,  and  celebrated  in  so  decent  and  solemn  a 
manner,  as  a  Christian  of  the  apostolic  age  would  have  allowed  to  be 
worthy  of  Christ."  He  afterwards  adopted  love-feasts  into  the  economy 
of  Methodism. 

August  7. — Mr.  Wesley  repelled  Mrs.  Williamson  from  the  holy 
communion,  for  the  reasons  specified  in  his  letter  of  the  6th  of  July, 
as  well  as  for  not  giving  him  notice  of  her  design  to  communicate, 
after  having  discontinued  it  for  some  time.  On  the  9th,  a  warrant 
having  been  issued  and  served  upon  him,  he  was  carried  before  the 
Recorder  and  magistrates.  Mr.  Williamson's  charge  was:  1.  That 
Mr.  Wesley  had  defamed  his  wife :  2.  That  he  had  causelessly  repelled 
her  from  the  holy  communion.  The  first  charge  Mr.  Wesley  denied; 
and  the  second,  being  purely  ecclesiastical,  he  would  not  acknowledge 
the  magistrate's  power  to  interrogate  him  concerning  it.  He  was  told 
that  he  must,  however,  appear  at  the  next  court  holden  for  Savannah. 

*  To  exercise  himself  nuto  godliness 


86  THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

In  the  mean  time  Mr.  Causton,  having  become  Mr.  AVesIey's  bitter 
enemy,  required  him  to  assip^n  his  reasons  in  wi-iting  for  repelling  his 
niece.  This  he  accordingly  did,  in  tlie  following  letter  to  Mrs.  Wil- 
liamson:  "At  Mr.  Causton's  request,  I  write  once  more.  The  rules 
whereby  I  proceed  are  these :  so  many  as  intend  to  partake  of  the 
holy  communion,  shall  signify  their  names  to  the  curate  at  least 
some  time  the  day  before.     This  y^ou  did  not  do. 

"And  if  any  of  these — have  done  any  wrong  to  his  neighbor  by  word 
or  deed,  so  that  the  congregation  be  thereby  offended,  the  curate  shall 
advertise  him,  that  in  any  wise  he  presume  not  to  come  to  the  Lord's 
table,  until  he  hath  openly  declared  himself  to  have  truly  repented. 

"If  you  ofter  youi-self  at  the  Lord's  table  on  Sunday,  I  will  adver- 
tise you,  as  I  have  done  more  than  once,  wherein  you  have  done  wrong; 
and  Avhen  you  have  openly  declared  yourself  to  have  truly  repented, 
I  will  administer  to  you  the  mysteries  of  God." 

On  the  12th  of  August,  and  the  following  days,  Mr.  Causton  read 
to  as  many  as  he  conveniently  could,  all  the  letters  Mr.  Wesley  had 
written  to  himself,  or  Miss  Sophy,  from  the  beginning  of  their  ac- 
quaintance; not,  indeed,  throughout,  but  selecting  certain  passages, 
which  might,  being  detached  from  the  rest,  and  aided  by  a  comment 
tohich  he  supplied,  make  an  impression  to  Mr.  Wesley's  disadvantage. 
Such  methods  as  these  of  oppressing  an  individual,  are  detestable; 
and  yet  they  have  too  often  been  practiced,  even  by  persons  profess- 
ing religion;  but  they  always  afford  sure  evidence  of  a  bad  cause. 

While  Mr.  Causton  was  thus  employed,  the  rest  of  the  family  were 
assiduous  in  their  endeavors  to  convince  all  to  whom  they  spake,  that 
Mr.  Wesley  had  repelled  Mrs.  AVilliamson  from  the  communion  out  of 
revenge,  because  she  had  refused  to  marry  him.  "I  sat  still  at 
home,"  says  Mr.  AVesley,  "and  I  thank  God,  easy,  having  committed 
my  cause  to  him ;  and  remembering  his  word,  '  Blessed  is  the  man 
that  endureth  temptation;  for  when  he  is  tried,  he  shall  receive  the 
crown  of  life,  which  the  Lord  hath  promised  to  them  that  love  him.' 
I  was  at  first  afraid  that  those  who  were  weak  in  the  faith  would  be 
turned  out  of  the  way,  at  least  so  far  as  to  neglect  the  public  "tvorship, 
by  attending  which  they  were  likely  to  suffer  in  their  temporal  con- 
cerns. But  I  feared  where  no  fear  was :  God  took  care  of  this  like- 
wise ;  insomuch  that  on  Sunday  the  14th,  more  were  present  at  the 
morning  prayers  than  had  been  for  some  months  before.  Many  of  them 
observed  those  words  in  the  first  lesson,  '  Set  Naboth  on  high  among 
the  people;  and  set  two  men,  sons  of  Belial,  before  him,  to  bear  wit- 
ness against  him.'  No  less  remarkable  were  those  in  the  evening 
lesson :  '  I  hate  him,  for  he  doth  not  prophesy  good  concerning  me, 
but  evil.'  0,  may  I  ever  be  able  to  say  with  Micaiah,  'What  the  Lord 
saith  unto  me,  that  will  I  speak;  and  that,  though  I  too  should  be  put 
into  prison,  and  fed  there,  with  bread  of  affliction,  and  with  water  of 
affliction.' " 

August  IG.  At  the  request  of  several  of  the  communicants,  he  drew 
up  a  short  relation  of  the  case,  and  read  it  after  the  evening  prayers, 
in  the  open  congregation.    And  this  evening,  as  Mr.  Wesley  supposed. 


THE    GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  37 

Mrs.  Williamson  was  prevailed  upon  to  swear  to  and  sign  a  paper 
containing  many  assertions  and  insinuations  injurious  to  his  charac- 
ter. During  the  whole  of  this  week,  Mr,  Causton  was  employed  in 
preparing  those  who  were  to  form  the  grand-jury  at  the  next  court- 
day.  He  was  talking  with  some  or  other  of  them  day  and  night:  his 
table  wa^  free  to  all:  old  misunderstandings  were  forgot,  and  nothing 
was  too  much  to  be  done  for  them,  or  promised  to  them,  Monday, 
the  twenty-second,  the  court  was  formed,  and  forty-four  jurors  were 
sworn  in,  instead  of  fifteen,  to  be  a  grand-jury  to  find  the  bills.  This 
was  done  by  Mr,  Causton,  who  hereby  showed  his  skill  in  the  manage- 
ment of  a  controversy  like  this.  He  knew  well  that  numbers  would 
add  weight  to  every  thing  they  transacted,  and  induce  them  to  take 
bolder  steps  than  a  few  would  venture  upon.  To  this  gi'and-jury  he 
gave  a  long  and  earnest  charge,  "to  beware  of  spiritual  tyranny,  and 
to  oppose  the  new  illegal  authority  which  was  usurped  over  their 
consciences."  Mrs.  Williamson's  affidavit  was  read;  and  he  then 
delivered  to  them  a  paper,  entitled  a  List  of  Grievances,  presented  by 
the  grand-jury  for  Savannah,  this  day  of  August,  1737.  In  the 
afternoon  Mrs,  Williamson  was  examined,  who  acknowledged  that  she 
had  no  objections  to  make  against  Mr.  Wesley's  conduct  before  her 
MARRIAGE,  The  next  day  Mr,  and  Mrs,  Causton  were  also  examined, 
when  she  confessed  that  it  was  by  her  request  Mr,  Wesley  had 
written  to  Mrs.  Williamson  on  the  5th  of  July;  and  Mr.  Causton 
declared,  that  if  Mr,  Wesley  had  asked  his  consent  to  have  mar- 
ried HIS  NIECE,  he  should  NOT  HAVE  REFUSED  IT ! !  The  grand-jury 
continued  to  examine  these  ecclesiastical  grievances,  which  occasioned 
warm  debates,  till  Thursdaj' ;  when  Mr,  Causton  being  informed  they 
were  entered  on  matters  beyond  his  instructions,  went  to  them,  and 
behaved  in  such  a  manner,  that  he  turned  forty-two  out  of  the  forty- 
four  into  a  fixed  resolution  to  inquire  into  his  whole  behavior.  They 
immediately  entered  on  that  business,  and  continued  examining  wit- 
nesses all  day  on  Friday.  On  Saturday,  Mr,  Causton  finding  all  his 
efforts  to  stop  them  ineffectual,  he  adjourned  the  court  till  Thursday, 
the  first  of  September,  and  spared  no  pains,  in  the  mean  time,  to 
bring  them  to  another  mind,  September  1,  He  so  far  prevailed,  that 
the  majority  of  the  grand-jury  returned  the  List  of  Grievances  to  the 
court,  in  some  particulars  altered,  under  the  form  of  two  present- 
ments, containing  ten  bills,  only  two  of  which  related  to  the  affair  of 
Mrs,  Williamson ;  and  only  one  of  these  was  cognizable  by  that  court, 
the  rest  being  merely  ecclesiastical.  September  2,  Mr.  Wesley 
addressed  the  court  to  this  effect:  "As  to  nine  of  the  ten  indictments 
against  me,  I  know  this  court  can  take  no  cognizance  of  them ;  they 
being  matters  of  an  ecclesiastical  nature,  and  this  not  an  ecclesiasti- 
cal court.  But  the  tenth,  concerning  my  speaking  and  wi'iting  to  Mrs. 
Williamson,  is  of  a  secular  nature;  and  this  therefore  I  desire  may  be 
tried  here,  where  the  facts  complained  of  were  committed."  Little 
answer  was  made,  and  that  purely  evasive. 

In  the  afternoon  he  moved  the  court  again  for  an  immediate  trial 
ftt  Savannah;  adding,  "That  those  who  are  offended  may  clearly  see 


38        THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

•whether  I  have  done  any  >VTonp;  to  any  one;  or  whether  I  have  not 
rathci'  deserved  the  thanks  of  Mrs.  Williamson,  Mr.  Causton,  and  of 
the  whole  family."  Mr.  Causton's  answer  was  full  of  civility  and 
respect.  lie  observed:  "Perhaps  things  would  not  have  been  carried 
so  far,  had  you  not  said,  you  believed  if  Mr.  Causton  appeared  the 
people  would  tear  him  in  pieces:  not  so  much  out  of  love  to  you,  as 
out  of  hatred  to  him  for  his  abominable  practices."  If  Mr.  Wesley 
really  spake  these  words,  he  was  certainly  very  imprudent,  consider- 
ing the  circumstances  in  which  he  was  placed.  But  we  too  often  find, 
in  disputes,  that  the  constructions  of  others  on  what  has  been  said 
are  reported  as  the  very  words  we  have  spoken ;  which  I  suspect  to 
have  been  the  case  here.  Mr.  Causton,  however,  has  sufficiently 
discovered  the  motives  that  influenced  his  conduct  in  this  business. 

TWELVE  of  the  grand-jurors  now  drew  up  a  protest  against  the 
proceedings  of  the  majority,  to  be  immediately  sent  to  the  trustees  in 
England.  In  this  paper  they  gave  such  clear  and  satisfactory  reasons, 
under  every  bill,  for  their  dissent  from  the  majority,  as  eflfectually  did 
away  all  just  ground  of  complaint  against  Mr.  Wesley,  on  the  subjects 
of  the  prosecution.  As  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Williamson  intended  to  go  for 
England  in  the  first  ship  that  should  sail,  some  of  Mr.  Wesley's  friends 
thought  he  ought  to  go  likewise;  chiefly  to  remove  the  bad  impressions 
which  misrepresentation  and  ill-natured  report  might  make  on  the 
trustees,  and  others  interested  in  the  welfare  of  the  colony.  But 
September  10  he  observes:  "I  laid  aside  the  thoughts  of  going  to 
England;  thinking  it  more  suitable  to  my  calling  still  to  commit  my 
cause  to  God,  and  not  to  be  in  haste  to  justify  myself:  only  to  be 
always  ready  to  give  to  any  that  should  ask  me,  a  reason  of  the  hope 
that  is  in  me." 

Immoderate  zeal  is  always  to  be  suspected;  especially  when  it 
appears  in  pursuing  such  measures  as  tend  to  injure  or  ruin  an 
individual.  A  bad  cause,  which  originated  from  hatred  or  malice,  will 
almost  always  be  carried  on  with  more  intemperate  zeal  and  bolder 
measures,  than  a  consciousness  of  acting  right  will  ever  produce. 
The  pursuit  of  any  end  in  view,  when  governed  by  the  passions,  is 
always  more  violent  than  when  directed  by  reason  and  truth.  On 
this  principle  we  may  account  for  the  proceedings  of  the  magistrates 
of  Savannah.  They  sent  the  affidavit  they  had  procured,  and  the 
two  presentments  of  the  grand-jury,  to  be  inserted  in  the  newspapers 
in  diflFerent  parts  of  America.  Tlae  only  purpose  this  could  answer, 
was  to  injure  Mr.  Wesley  in  the  opinion  of  a  large  body  of  people, 
who  could  not  easily  come  at  a  true  knowledge  of  the  case.  That 
these  advertisements  might  make  a  deeper  impression  on  the  minds 
of  the  multitude,  the  pomp  of  legal  form  was  preserved  ;  the  following 
words  being  added  at  the  end  of  each  bill — "Contrary  to  the  peace 
OF  OUR  Sovereign  Lord  the  King,  his  Crown  and  Dignity."  Per- 
sons of  discernment  saw  through  the  artifice;  and  in  the  end  of  Sep- 
tember, ]\Ir.  Wesley  received  a  letter  from  a  gentleman  of  considerable 
abilities  and  learning  in  Charlestown,  in  which  are  the  following 
observations:    "I  am  much  concerned  at  some  reports  and  papers 


THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED.        39 

concerning  you  from  Georgia.  The  papers  contain  some  affidavits 
made  against  you  by  one  Mrs.  Williamson;  and  a  parcel  of  stuff  called 
presentments  of  you  by  the  grand-jury,  for  matters  chiefly  of  your  mer« 
office  as  a  clergyman.  Has  our  sovereign  lord  the  king  given  the 
temporal  courts  in  Georgia  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction?  If  he  has  not, 
then  sure  I  am,  that  whatever  your  failings  in  your  office  may  be,  a 
grand-jury's  presentment  of  them,  being  repugnant  to  the  fundamen- 
tal laws  and  constitution  of  England,  is  a  plain  ^breach  of  his  peace,^ 
and  an  open  insult  on  'his  crown  and  dignity;'  for  which  they  them- 
selves ought  to  be  presented,  if  they  have  not  incurred  a  'prcmunire.* 
The  presentments,  a  sad  pack  of  nonsense,  I  have  seen;  but  not  the 
affidavits.  They  were  both  designed  to  have  been  published  in  our 
Gazette,  but  our  friends  here  have  hitherto  prevented  it.  I  shall  be 
glad  to  have  some  light  from  yourself  into  these  matters,  and  where- 
with to  oppose  the  reports  industriously  spread  here  to  your  disad- 
vantage ;  meantime,  I  remain  your  most  obedient  humble  servant, 

"S.  Garden." 

Mr.  Wesley  received  some  consolatory  letters  from  those  of  his 
friends  to  whom  he  had  represented  his  situation.  A  letter  of  this 
kind  from  Dr.  Cutler,  a  clergyman  of  Boston,  contains  some  thoughts 
so  just,  and  not  very  commonly  to  be  met  with,  that  I  think  it  worthy 
of  a  place  here.  It  is  dated  the  twenty-second  of  October.  "I  am 
sorry,  sir,"  says  he,  "for  the  clouds  hanging  over  your  mind,  respect- 
ing your  undertaking  and  situation ;  but  hope  God  will  give  a  happy 
increase  to  that  good  seed  you  have  planted  and  watered,  according 
to  his  will.  The  best  of  men,  in  all  ages,  have  failed  in  the  success 
of  their  labor;  and  there  will  ever  be  found  too  many  enemies  to  the 
cross  of  Christ;  for  earth  will  not  be  heaven.  This  reminds  us  of  that 
happy  place,  where  we  shall  not  see  and  be  grieved  for  transgressors ; 
and  where,  for  our  well-meant  labors,  our  judgment  is  with  the  Lord, 
and  our  reward  with  our  God.  And  you  well  know,  sir,  that  under 
the  saddest  appearances,  we  may  have  some  share  in  the  consolations 
which  God  gave  Elijah;  and  may  trust  in  him  that  there  is  some 
wickedness  we  repress  or  prevent;  some  goodness  by  our  means,  weak 
and  unworthy  as  we  are,  beginning  and  increasing  in  the  hearts  of 
men,  at  present;  perhaps  like  a  grain  of  mustard-seed,  that  in  God's 
time  may  put  forth,  and  spread  and  flourish;  and  that,  if  the  world 
seems  not  the  better  for  us,  it  might  be  worse  without  us.  Our  low 
opinion  of  ourselves  is  a  preparative  to  these  successes ;  and  so  the 
modest  and  great  Apostle  found  it. 

"No  doubt,  sir,  you  have  temptations  where  you  are,  nor  is  there 
any  retreat  from  them:  they  hint  to  us  the  care  we  must  take,  and 
the  promises  we  must  apply  to ;  and  blessed  is  the  man  that  endureth 
temptation. 

"I  rejoice  in  the  good  character  you  give,  which  I  believe  you  well 
bestow,  of  Mi\  Whitefield,  who  is  coming  to  you ;  but  I  question  not 
but  his  labors  will  be  better  joined  with  than  supersede  yours;  and 
even  his  and  all  our  sufficiency  and  efficiency  is  of  God. 

*  To  incur  a  premuaire,  i«  to  be  liable  to  uuprisoameat  and  loss  of  good*. 


40  THE    GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

*'It  is  the  least  -we  can  do  to  pray  for  one  another;  and  if  God  "will 
hear  me,  a  great  pinner,  it  will  strengthen  your  interest  in  him.  1 
recommend  myself  to  a  share  in  your  prayers,  for  his  pardon,  accept- 
ance and  assistance;  and  beg  that  my  family — may  not  be  forgotten 
by  you." 

Mr.  Wesley,  in  the  midst  of  this  sforra  kept  up  by  the  arts  of  his 
avowed  enemies,  without  a  shilling  in  his  pocket,  and  three  thousand 
miles  from  home,  possessed  his  soul  in  peace,  and  pursued  his  labors 
with  the  same  unremitting  diligence,  as  if  he  had  enjoyed  the  greatest 
tranquillity  and  ease.  October  30.  He  gives  us  an  account  of  his 
labors  on  the  Lord's-day.  "The  English  service  lasted  from  five  till 
half  an  hour  past  six.  The  Italian  (with  a  few  Vaudois)  began  at 
nine.  The  second  service  for  the  English,  including  the  sermon  and 
the  holy  communion,  continued  from  half  an  hour  past  ten  till  about 
half  an  hour  past  twelve.  The  French  service  began  at  one.  At  two 
I  catechised  the  children.  About  three  began  the  English  service. 
After  this  was  ended,  I  joined  with  as  many  as  my  large  room  would 
hold,  in  reading,  prayer,  and  singing.  And  about  six  the  service  of 
the  Germans  began;  at  which  I  was  glad  to  be  present,  not  as  a 
teacher,  but  as  a  learner." 

November  1.  He  received  a  temporary  relief  from  his  pressing 
wants.  "Col.  Stephens,"  says  he,  "arrived,  by  whom  I  received  a 
benefaction  of  ten  pounds  sterling;*  after  having  been  for  several 
months  without  one  shilling  in  the  house,  but  not  without  peace, 
health,  and  contentment." 

November  3.  Pie  attended  the  court  holden  on  that  day;  and  again 
at  the  court  held  on  the  twenty-third ;  urging  an  immediate  hearing 
of  his  case,  that  he  might  have  an  opportunity  of  answering  the  alle- 
gations alleged  against  him.  But  this  the  magistrates  refused,  and  at 
the  same  time  countenanced  every  report  to  his  disadvantage:  whether 
it  was  a  mere  invention,  or  founded  on  a  malicious  construction  of 
any  thing  he  did  or  said.  Mr.  Wesley  perceiving  that  he  had  not  the 
most  distant  prospect  of  obtaining  justice,  that  he  was  in  a  place 
where  those  in  power  were  combined  together  to  oppress  him,  and 
could  any  day  procure  evidence  (as  experience  had  shown)  of  words 
he  had  never  spoken,  and  of  actions  he  had  never  done ;  being  disap- 
pointed, too,  in  the  primary  object  of  his  mission,  preaching  to  the 
Indians,  he  consulted  his  friends  what  he  ought  to  do ;  who  were  of 
opinion  with  him,  that,  by  these  circumstances.  Providence  did  now 
call  him  to  leave  Savannah.  The  next  day  he  called  on  Mr.  Causton, 
and  told  him  he  designed  to  set  out  for  England  immediately.  No- 
vember 24,  he  put  up  the  following  advertisement  in  the  great  square, 
and  quietly  prepared  for  his  journey: 
"Whereas  John  Wesley  designs  shortly  to  set  out  for  England,  This 

is  to  desire  those  who  have  borrowed  any  books  of  him,  to  return 

them  as  soon  as  they  conveniently  can,  to 

John  Wesley." 

November  30.  He  went  once  more  to  Mr.  Causton,  to  desire  money 

*  I  suppose  tbe  teu  pounds  mentioued  iu  Dr.  Burton's  letter  the  loth  of  Juae. 


THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED.        41 

to  defray  his  expenses  to  England,  intending  to  set  out  on  Friday,  the 
second  of  December.  It  appears  to  me  that  this  was  an  event  which 
the  magistrates  most  ardently  wished  to  take  place,  and  to  which  all 
their  proceedings  had  been  solely  directed.  It  is  no  objection  to  this 
opinion,  that  they  published  an  order  to  prohibit  him  from  leaving  the 
province.  It  is  manifest  that  they  had  no  intention  of  bringing  the 
matter  to  a  fair  hearing  before  them,  and  of  giving  it  a  legal  decision. 
They  knew  well  that  the  evidence  was  so  strong  in  Mr.  Wesley's  favor, 
that  they  could  not  even  invent  a  plausible  pretence  for  giving  the 
cause  against  him.  But  to  give  it  in  his  favor  would  have  been  cause 
of  rejoicing  to  him  and  his  friends,  and  would  have  covered  his  ene- 
mies with  shame;  and  they  had  no  way  of  preventing  this  but  by 
delaying  the  trial  as  long  as  possible.  On  the  other  hand,  they  easily 
foresaw  that  if,  by  cutting  off  all  prospect  of  terminating  the  affair, 
and  multiplying  false  and  injurious  reports  concerning  him  every  day, 
they  could  weary  out  his  patience,  and  induce  him  to  quit  the  province 
of  his  own  accord,  the  triumph  would  be  left  to  his  enemies;  and  he 
leaving  the  province  pending  a  prosecution  against  him,  and  in  oppo- 
sition to  a  prohibition  of  the  magistrates,  would  bring  a  censure  upon 
him,  and  make  his  conduct  and  character  suspected  among  all  those 
who  did  not  know  the  circumstances  of  the  case.  Finding  him  now 
determined  to  go  for  England,  they  had  a  fine  opportunity  of  giving 
their  plan  its  full  effect.  Mr.  Wesley  intended  to  set  out  about  noon, 
the  tide  then  serving;  but  about  ten  o'clock  the  magistrates  sent  for 
him,  and  told  him  he  should  not  go  out  of  the  province  till  he  had 
entered  into  recognizance  to  appear  at  the  court,  and  answer  the  alle- 
gations laid  against  him.  Mr.  Wesley  replied,  that  he  had  appeared 
AT  SIX  COURTS  SUCCESSIVELY,  and  had  openly  desired  a  trial,  but  was 
refused  it.  They  said  that  he  must,  however,  give  security  to  appear 
again.  He  asked,  what  security?  After  a  long  consultation  together, 
they  agreed  upon  a  kind  of  bond,  that  he  should  appear  at  Savannah, 
when  required,  under  a  penalty  of  /i/(i/  pounds.  But  the  Recorder 
added.  You  must  likewise  give  bail  to  answer  Mr.  Williamson's  action 
of  one  thousand  pounds'  damages.  '*  I  then  began,"  says  Mr.  Wesley, 
"to  see  into  their  design  of  spinning  out  time  and  doing  nothing;  and 
so  told  him  plainly,  Sir,  I  will  sign  neither  one  bond  nor  the  other:  you 
know  your  business,  and  I  know  mine.^'' 

The  magistrates  finding  him  quite  resolved  to  go  for  England,  saw 
their  plan  was  secure,  and  that  they  might  carry  on  the  farce,  to  keep 
up  appeai-ances  in  their  own  favor,  without  danger  of  disappointment. 
In  the  afternoon,  therefore,  they  published  an  order  requiring  all 
officers  to  prevent  his  going  out  of  the  province,  and  forbidding  any 
person  to  assist  him  so  to  do.  The  day  was  now  far  spent:  after 
evening  prayers,  therefore,  the  tide  again  serving,  Mr.  Wesley  left 
Savannah,  in  company  with  three  other  persons,  no  one  attempt- 
ing TO  HINDER  HIM.  Indeed,  I  have  no  doubt  but  the  magistrates  were 
heartily  glad  to  get  rid  of  a  man  whose  whole  manner  of  life  was  a 
constant  reproof  of  their  licentiousness,  and  whose  words  were  aa 
arrows  sticking  fast  in  them. 


42  THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

If  we  candidly  review  all  the  circumstances  of  this  affair,  we  shall 
perhaps  be  led  to  conclude  that  Mr.  Wesley  might  have  acted  with 
more  caution,  and  more  regard  to  his  own  ease  and  character,  than 
he  did  when  he  first  saw  the  storm  gathering,  and  likely  to  burst  with 
violence  upon  him.  But  his  constant  rule  was,  to  ascertain,  to  the 
satisfaction  of  his  own  mind,  that  particular  line  of  conduct  which 
duty  required  him  to  pursue,  as  a  Christian  and  a  minister  of  the 
gospel,  and  then  steadily  to  walk  in  it,  regardless  of  consequences.  And 
there  is  every  evidence  which  the  case  will  admit,  that  he  acted  in 
this  conscientious  manner  towards  Mrs.  Williamson.  It  does  not 
appear  that  any  one  ever  charged  him  with  repelling  her  from  the 
holy  communion  out  of  revenge  because  she  loould  not  marry  him,  except 
HEU  RELATIONS,  who  now  thought  it  necessary  to  injure  his  reputation 
as  much  as  possible,  to  cover  themselves  from  reproach.  But  this 
charge  not  only  wants  positive  proof:  it  is  even  destitute  of  probabi- 
lity. It  was  about  five  months  after  her  marriage  when  this  circum- 
stance happened ;  during  the  former  part  of  which  time  he  had  fre- 
quently administered  the  sacrament  to  her,  without  showing  any  symptoms 
of  revenge ;  and  about  three  months  after  her  marriage,  he  saw  such 
things  in  her  conduct  as,  in  his  private  Jovirnal,  which  was  never 
printed,  induced  him  to  bless  God  for  his  deliverance  in  not  marrying  her. 
Now  let  me  ask  any  candid  man,  if  it  is  probable  that  Mr.  Wesley 
could  be  actuated  by  a  spirit  of  revenge  for  a  disappointment  at  the 
end  of  five  months,  which  had  no  influence  on  his  conduct  at  the  end 
of  thi'ce  months;  and  even  after  he  had  been  convinced  that  the  dis- 
appointment itself  was  a  mercy,  for  which  he  secretly  thanked  God? 
I  think  no  man  will  say  it  is  probable :  I  apprehend  it  is  impossible 
this  should  be  the  case.  In  his  pastoral  character,  Mr.  Wesley  acted 
by  one  rule  towards  all  the  communicants.  If  any  one  had  discon- 
tinued his  attendance  at  the  Lord's  table,  he  required  him  to  signify 
his  name  some  time  the  day  before  he  intended  to  communicate  again; 
and  if  any  one  had  done  wrong  to  his  neighbor,  so  that  the  congrega- 
tion was  thereby  offended,  he  required  him  openly  to  declare  that  he 
had  repented.  This  rule  the  order  of  the  Church  of  England  required 
him  to  observe,  and  he  acted  by  it  invariably  in  all  cases,  whether  the 
persons  were  rich  or  poor,  friends  or  enemies.  Mrs.  Williamson  did 
not  conform  to  this  established  order,  which  must  have  been  well 
known  to  all  the  communicants  in  so  small  a  place.  Mr.  Wesley  was 
therefore  reduced  to  this  alternative,  either  to  break  an  order  he  held 
sacred,  in  her  favor,  and  thereby  incur  the  censure  of  a  blamable 
partiality  for  her,  after  being  married  to  another;  or  to  repel  her 
from  the  holy  communion,  and  incur  the  censure  of  having  done  it 
out  of  revenge,  because  she  would  not  marry  him.  Censure  was 
inevitable,  whichever  way  he  had  acted;  and  having  well  considered 
the  matter,  he  determined  to  follow  the  rule  he  had  always  observed, 
and  leave  the  consequences  to  God. 

I  have  elsewhere  omitted  to  state,  that  the  substance  of 
Graves's  abuse  of  3Ir.  Wesley,   on  account  of  this  affair  at 


THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED.        43 

Savannah,  is  taken  from  Lempriere^ s  Universal  GeograpJiy, 
Lempriere  was  at  heart  an  infidel,  an  enemy  to  Mr.  Wesley; 
and  he  speaks  as  contemptuously  of  Whitefield  as  of  "Wesley : 
resolving  his  ardent  piety  and  flaming  zeal  in  the  cause  of 
God,  into  enthusiasm  and  a  spirit  of  proselytism ! 

Even  Mr.  JSoiitJie?/,  in  his  Life  of  Wesley,  on  this  subject 
has  done  himself  honor  and  Mr.  Wesley  justice.  Graves 
quotes  Southey  in  other  matters,  but  in  this  Savannah  affair 
he  passes  him  by,  because  Southey  vindicates  Mr.  Wesley's 
character  against  this  vilest  of  all  other  slanders  ! 

It  is  very  certain,  says  Mr.  Southey,  that  the  magistrates  designed 
nothing  more  than  to  make  him  withdraw;  but  in  order  to  keep 
up  appearances,  and  to  stigmatize  his  departure  as  if  it  were  a  flight 
from  justice,  they  published  an  order  that  aftci-noon,  requiring  all  the 
officers  and  sentinels  to  prevent  him  from  leaving  the  colony,  and  for- 
bidding any  person  to  assist  him  to  do  so.  This  order  was  not  meant 
to  be  obeyed.  Indeed,  Mr.  Wesley  had  still  zealous  friends  in  the 
colony.  Even  among  the  jurors,  (fifty  were  summoned,)  though  every 
means  was  taken  to  select  men  Avho  were  likely  to  prove  his  accusers, 
and  no  means  of  prepossessing  them  against  him  were  spared,  twelve 
persons  were  fovmd  (a  sufficient  jury)  who,  in  a  paper  addressed  to  the 
trustees,  protested  against  the  indictment  as  a  scheme  for  gratifying 
personal  malice  by  blackening  INIr.  Wesley's  character. 

Now,  there  are  a  few  points  I  wish  the  candid  reader  to 
bear  in  mind  : 

1.  This  slanderer  alleges  that  Mr.  Wesley  ^^  flees  from  jus- 
tice and  leaves  Savannah  hy  night."  The  proof  is  that  he 
left  late  in  the  afternoon,  having  waited  for  the  rising  of  the 
tide,  in  company  with  "  three  other  persons,"  but  not  without 
having  previously  put  up  a  bold  and  manly  advertisement  on 
the  GREAT  SQUARE,  to  the  effect  that  he  would  leave  for 
England,  and  asking  the  return  of  all  the  books  persons  had 
borrowed  of  him  !  He  left  openly  and  above-board,  accord- 
ing to  a  previous  notice,  but  not  until  he  had  '^  appeared  at 
SIX  COURTS  SUCCESSIVELY,  and  had  openly  desired  a 
trial ;"  and  besides,  not    ntil  he  had  called  on  Mr.  Causton  in 


44  THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

person,  and  ''told  him  that  he  designed  to  set  out  for  Eng- 
land innncdiately."  lie  went  to  3Ir.  Causton,  last  of  all,  and 
applied  for  money  to  defray  his  expenses  to  England,  tell- 
ing HIM  THE  DAY  ON  WHICH  HE  WOULD  SET  OUT  ! 

2.  Elder  Graves  says  that ''  his  own  people  were  thoroughly 
disgusted  with  his  conduct."  In  Roberts's  Narrative  of  the 
Life  of  George  Whitefield,  who  arrived  at  Savannah  the 
following  May,  and  entered  upon  his  ministry,  at  page  56, 
we  learn  that  Mr.  AVhitefield  ''found  many  serious  persons, 
the  fruits  of  Mr.  Wesley's  ministry,  glad  to  receive  him,  and 
regretting  the  return  of  the  former  to  England" — that  "he 
had  now  an  opportunity  of  inquiring,  7qion  the  sjwt,  into  the 
circumstances  of  the  late  disputes,  and  bears  witness  to  the 
ill-usage  Mr.  Wesley  had  received."  And  to  this  good  day, 
to  my  own  certain  knowledge,  the  citizens  of  Savannah  have 
great  veneration  for  the  name  and  memory  of  John  Wesley; 
and  the  influence  of  his  example  and  teachings  are  yet  to  be 
seen  in  the  liberality  of  the  people,  both  in  supporting  the 
gospel  and  contributing  to  other  benevolent  objects.  The 
Methodists  have  several  fine  houses  of  worship  there,  and  as 
many  large  and  respectable  societies,  who  thank  God  most 
sincerely  that  ever  a  Wesley  labored  in  that  city ! 

3.  Elder  Graves  says,  "  The  jury  found  a  true  bill  against 
John,  the  founder  of  Methodism,"  etc.  The  proof  is,  that 
the  jury  were  coaxed,  lectured,  feasted,  and  their  meetings 
were  adjourned  over  from  day  to  day,  until,  loorried  by  the 
importunities  of  Mr.  Causton,  a  wealthy,  talented,  vindictive 
man,  they  returned  a  bill  against  him,  but  with  great  reluc- 
tance !  Mr.  Wesley  defended  himsdf,  or  "appeared  at  six 
COURTS  successively,"  but  could  get  no  hearing,  because 
neither  Mr.  Causton  nor  the  magistrates  ever  intended  he 
should  have  a  trial !  A  minority  of  the  jurors  defended  him 
successfully,  and  their  defence  was  transmitted  to  the  trustees 
in  England,  which  document  appears  in  his  Journal.     Did  t 


THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED.        46 

uot  feel  that  his  defence  is  complete,  I  would  copy  that  docu- 
ment ! 

4.  Elder  Graves  says  that  Mrs.  Williamson  "  swore  to  and 
signed  an  affidavit,  intending  much  more  than  it  asserted!'' 
The  connection  in  which  this  language  is  used,  and  the 
manner  in  which  it  is  italicised,  leave  no  doubt  that  a 
most  villainous  insinuation  is  intended  !  The  proof  is,  that 
the  chastity  of  Mr.  Wesley  never  was  called  in  question : 
Mrs.  Williamson  testified  upon  oath  that  she  had  no  objection 
to  the  conduct  of  Mr.  Wesley  toward  her  before  her  mar- 
riage: Mrs.  Causton  made  oath  that  it  was  at  her  request 
Mr.  Wesley  wrote  the  letter  to  her  niece  that  gave  them  of- 
fence )  and  Mr.  Causton  testified  on  oath  that  if  Mr.  Wesley 
had  asked  his  consent  to  marry  his  niece,  he  would  have  given 
it!  The  virtue  of  Mrs.  Williamson,  formerly  Miss  Sophy 
Causton^  never  was  doubted;  and  if  Mr.  Wesley  had  ever 
made  an  ungentlemanly  or  dishonorable  proposition  to  her, 
would  she  have  continued,  both  before  and  after  her  marriage, 
and  through  a  period  of  more  than  eighteen  months,  to  have 
received,  at  regular  and  stated  periods,  and  according  to  the 
usages  of  the  Church  of  England,  the  holy  communion  at 
his  hands  ?     Certainly  not ! 

6.  Mr.  AYesley,  though  "  prosecuted'^  by  a  woman  and  her 
friends,  for  enforcing  the  rigid  rules  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, of  which  he  was  a  minister,  never  kept  house  in  Nash- 
ville— employed  an  unmarried  woman  to  live  with  his  wife, 
who  turned  out  to  be  <' possessed" — not  only  of  a  devil,  but 
also  of  a  most  loathsome  disease — all  which  came  before  his 
Church — was  rehearsed  from  beginning  to  ending,  until  ^'  his 
own  people  became  thoroughly  disgusted  with  his  conduct  V 
T  repeat  that  Mr.  Wesley  never  was  in  a  scrape  of  this  kind ; 
but  J.  R.  Graves  cannot  say,  and  tell  the  truth,  that  such  an 
afi'air  never  came  off  in  his  family  and  Church ! 

6.  Mr.  Wesley,  though  presented  to  the  Grand  Jury,  by 


16  THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

an  ill-natured  and  irreliuious  family,  for  refusing  to  adminis- 
ter the  holy  communion  to  a  woman  who  refused  to  comply 
with  the  rules  and  regulations  of  the  Church,  never  was  in- 
dicted for  a  gross  Uhd  upon  a  respectable  gentleman  (through 
the  columns  of  the  filthy '<  Tennessee  Baptist")  at  Lexington, 
Tennessee — convicted  and  punished  to  the  tune  of  seven 
THOUSAND  FIVE  HUNDRED  DOLLARS  AND  COSTS ;  ncvcr  ap- 
pealed to  the  Supreme  Court  of  Tennessee  at  Jackson — there 
had  the  decision  of  the  Court  below  aflGirmed,  and  mortgaged 
all  his  effects  away,  to  avoid  the  payment  of  this  fine  and 
costs.  But  all  this  has  happened  with  J.  R.  Graves,  during 
the  last  twelve  or  eighteen  months,  as  the  records  at  Lexing- 
ton, Jackson,  and  Nashville  will  show  ! 

7.  Mr.  Wesley  was  indicted  more  than  one  hundred  years 
ago,  in  the  Province  of  Greorgia,  for  refusing  to  administer 
the  holy  communion  to  a  lady,  in  violation  of  the  rules  and 
usages  of  his  Church ;  but  he  never  was  jpuhlicly  cudgelled  on 
the  streets  of  Nashville,  by  an  ex-member  of  Congress,  for 
wanton  abuse  and  insults  of  female  character,  through  the 
columns  of  that  great  receptacle  of  filth,  the  '^Tennessee 
Baptist."  But  this  merited  castigation  was  inflicted  upon  the 
reckless  and  notorious  J.  R.  Graves  !  And  no  sympathy  was 
felt  for  him  in  that  community,  nor  could  any  redress  be  had 
at  law.  He  had  unfrocked  himself  as  a  clergyman — he  had 
dragged  female  character  before  the  public,  and  done  that 
which  derogated  from  the  dignity  of  his  high  calling — and 
the  brother-in-law  of  the  lady  taught  him  the  gracious  lesson 
of  moderation,  hj puhlicly  mauling  him  with  a  stick!  This 
is  the  man,  however,  who  has  been  endorsed  by  the  '^  North 
Carolina  Publishing  Society  of  the  Baptist  Church" — an  en- 
dorsement their  consciences  may  trouble  them  for  in  the 
future,  unless  they  find  consolation  in  the  truthful  words  of 
the  poet : 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  47 

Lives  of  great  men  all  remind  us 

We  can  make  our  lives  sublime ; 
And,  departing,  leave  behind  us 

Footprints  on  the  sands  of  Time  1 

Intending  in  the  next  chapter  a  further  consideration  of 
the  character  and  labors  of  Mr.  Wesley,  I  shall  not  extend 
my  remarks  in  this.  The  reader  must  have,  discovered  ere 
this  the  blind  impetuosity  and  cherished  hostility  of  '^  Elder 
Graves/'  as  his  North  Carolina  associates  style  him,  to  the 
doctrines,  polity,  and  interests  of  Methodism.  Even  truth, 
when  he  utters  it,  is  couched  in  such  language,  and  written 
under  the  influence  of  such  a  spirit,  as  scarcely  to  entitle  it 
to  credit.  How  lost  to  all  that  is  virtuous,  to  all  that  is  dig- 
nified or  interesting  in  the  character  of  man,  that  state  of  feel- 
ing must  be  which  can  feast  with  pleasure  upon  the  supposed 
foibles  or  even  wickedness  of  human  nature,  I  need  not  pause 
to  tell ;  and  I  should  tremble  to  relate  the  destiny  of  him 
who  cherishes  it !  How  truly  it  may  be  said  of  the  indul- 
gence of  such  feelings,  when  seen  in  one  passing  for  a  grave 
''  Elder"  in  the  ministry,  who  arrogates  to  himself  distin- 
guished powers  of  mind  and  the  advantages  of  an  education, 
that  learning  loses  its  dignity,  religion  its  sanctity,  and  talents 
their  merited  respect ! 


48  THE   GREAT    IRON    AVIIEEL   EXAMINED. 


CHAPTEK    III. 

Mr.  Wesley's  early  training — Character  of  Ms  mother — His  ordina- 
tions— His  intercourse  with  the  MoraAnans — Preaches  in  the  open 
fields  with  great  power  and  effect — The  organization  of  the  first 
Conference — Introduction  of  JNIethodism  into  America — Preachers 
sent  over  to  America — First  Conference  held  in  Philadelphia — Ap- 
peal to  the  "North  Carolina  PuVjlishing  Society  of  the  Baptist 
Church" — Fruits  of  Methodism — Statistics — Comparative  strength 
of  Methodists  and  Baptists  in  Georgia — Closing  scenes  of  Mr.  Wes- 
ley's life — His  triumphant  death — Inscription  on  his  tomb — De- 
scription of  his  person. 

"Methodism,"  says  Mr.  "Watson,  in  his  Observations  on 
Soutbey's  Life  of  Wesley,  "has  been  usually  assailed  by  a 
violence  so  blind  and  illiberal,  that  those  writers  who  have 
attempted  to  confute  its  principles,  or  to  exhibit  it  alternately 
as  an  object  of  ridicule  and  alarm,  have,  in  most  cases,  suffi- 
ciently answered  themselves,  and  controversy  has  been  ren- 
dered unnecessary.  A  few  and  only  a  few  defences  of  Mr. 
Wesley  and  his  opinions  have,  therefore,  been  published. 
The  time  of  those  best  qualified  for  such  a  task  has  been 
better  employed  in  works  of  active  piety  and  benevolence. 
They  have  held  on  their  way  '  through  good  report  and  evil 
report,^  thinking  it  enough  that,  by  the  writings  of  their 
founder  and  other  subsequent  publications,  the  candid  might 
acquaint  themselves  with  their  views  of  Christianity;  and 
that  a  people  spread  through  the  land  presented  points  of 
observation  sufficiently  numerous  to  enable  unprejudiced  per- 
sons to  form  an  accurate  estimate  of  their  character  and  in- 
fluence." 

Now,  what  I  have  to  say  touching  these  judicious  observa- 


THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED.        49 

ttons  of  that  very  eloquent  and  excellent  divine  is,  tliat  they 
are  as  forcibly  applicable  in  America  as  ever  they  were  in 
]^]ngland.  A  high  sense  of  the  merits  of  Mr.  Watson  is  en- 
tertained in  this  country,  as  well  as  his  own,  both  of  his 
talents  and  his  virtues,  and  of  the  distinguished  services 
which,  as  well  by  his  pulpit  eloquence  as  by  his  various  works 
from  the  press,  he  has  rendered,  not  to  ''Methodism"  only, 
but  to  Christianity  and  to  the  world.  And  to  all  those  who 
think  proper  to  assail  "Methodism"  or  "Wesley,"  through 
such  mediums  as  F.  A.  Ross  and  J.  R.  Graves,  I  beg  leave 
respectfully  to  recommend  a  perusal  of  Mr.  Watson's  review 
of  the  Life  of  Wesley  by  Southey.  It  will  be  found  an  ample 
antidote;  and  will  convince  any  Christian  gentleman,  I  think, 
that  Southey's  work,  as  well  as  the  more  vulgar  productions 
of  Ross  and  Graves,  made  up  in  part  by  quotations  from  the 
former,  are  as  direct  a  stab  at  all  evangelical  and  vital  godli- 
ness as  at  "Methodism"  or  "Wesley." 

The  representations  of  "facts"  given  by  Elder  Graves, 
which  go  to  make  up  his  proofs  of  charges,  are  not  correct, 
nor  are  they  consistent  with  the  authors  he  professes  to  rely 
upon ;  and  among  these  there  are  those  of  the  very  worst 
character,  because  of  the  most  decided  hostility  both  to  Mr. 
Wesley  and  to  Methodism.  Of  these  authorities,  it  is  suffi- 
cient barely  to  mention  the  names  of  Southey,  Toplady,  and 
Ross  ! 

In  this  chapter,  I  desire  to  continue  my  defence  of  Mr. 
Wesley,  and  to  supply  some  important  omissions,  which  were 
allowed,  rather  than  increase  the  length  of  the  former  chapter 
to  an  extent  that  might  tend  to  weary  the  patience  of  the 
reader. 

The  Rev.  John  Wesley  was  the  second  son  of  Samuel 

and  Susannah  Wesley,  and  was  born  at  Epworth,  in  Lincoln- 

fehire,  England,  June  17,  1703,  {Old  Style.)     He  received 

his  first  lessons  of  instructions  from  his  mother,  one  of  the 

3 


50  THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

first  women  of  the  last  ceutury,  and  a  woman  admirably 
qualified  for  the  proper  education  and  training  of  her  children. 
Truly  did  Bonaparte  say,  "  The  future  destiny  of  the  child  is 
the  work  of  the  mother."  His  father  was  a  learned  and 
pious  minister  of  the  Established  Church  of  England;  and 
his  mother  was  not  less  strenuously  attached  than  his  father 
to  the  doctrines,  usages,  and  formularies  of  that  Church. 
The  "Wesley  family  were  all  resolute  and  determined.  In 
these  principles  John  Wesley  was  educated,  and  the  im- 
pressions made  upon  his  mind,  under  the  skilful  management 
and  pious  teachings  of  one  of  the  noblest  mothers  of  that 
century,  and  the  guidance  and  examples  of  such  a  father, 
were  not  only  never  erased,  but  became  the  guiding  principles 
of  his  subsequent  life. 

To  give  the  reader  an  idea  of  the  moral  courage  of 
Samuel  Wesley,  I  give  the  following  incident,  strictly  true : 

The  Rev.  Samuel  Wesley,  father  of  the  celebrated  John  Wesley, 
being  strongly  importuned  by  the  friends  of  James  II.  to  support  the 
measures  of  the  court  in  favor  of  Popery,  with  promises  of  prefer- 
ment, absolutely  refused  even  to  read  the  King's  declaration ;  and 
though  surrounded  Trith  courtiers,  soldiers,  and  informers,  he  preached 
a  bold  and  pointed  discourse  against  it  from  these  words:  "If  it  be 
so,  our  God  whom  we  serve  is  able  to  deliver  us  out  of  thine  hand,  0 
King.  But  if  not,  be  it  known  unto  thee,  0  liing,  that  we  will  not 
serve  thy  gods,  nor  worship  the  golden  image  which  thou  hast  set  up." 

At  the  age  of  sixteen  years,  John  Wesley  entered  college 
at  Oxford,  and  by  his  rapid  progress  soon  gave  evidence  of  his 
superior  powers  of  intellect,  and  sternness  of  virtue,  which  so 
distinguished  him  in  after  life.  In  1725  he  was  ordained  a 
deacon,  and  in  1726  he  was  elected  Fellow  of  Lincoln  College. 
He  took  his  degree  in  1727,  and  in  1728  was  ordained  a 
presbyter  in  the  Church  of  England. 

Passing  over  the  events  of  his  life  which  occurred  during 
the  remainder  of  the  brief  period  he  spent  at  Oxford,  and 
which  were  characterized  by  his  devotion  to  the  Church,  lovo 


THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED.        51 

of  literature,  wise  and  prudent  counsels,  and  his  constant 
charity  to  the  poor,  I  come  down  to  his  missionary  voyage  to 
America;  and  which  has  been,  in  connection  with  his  brief 
sojourn  in  Savannah,  the  subject  of  such  abuse,  slander,  and 
wicked  insinuations,  as  never  were  heaped  upon  any  man  since 
that  period.  As  set  forth  in  the  preceding  pages,  I  repeat, 
that  Mr,  Wesley  was  baffled  in  his  pious  designs  of  preaching 
the  gospel  to  the  North  American  Indians,  misrepresented  and 
persecuted  by  those  who  ought  to  have  been  his  friends  and 
defenders ;  and  seeing  but  a  dull  prospect  of  succeeding  in 
his  main  design,  he  took  leave  of  the  Georgians  under  the 
circumstances  herein  before  detailed,  and  arrived  in  London 
in  February,  1738,  having  spent  two  years  in  America. 

On  his  passage  to  America,  Mr.  Wesley  made  the  acquaint- 
ance of  some  pious  Moravians  on  board  the  same  ship.  He 
had  frequent  opportunities  of  conversing  with  them — gave 
into  their  sound  and  scriptural  views  of  the  doctrine  of  justi- 
fication through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  necessity  and 
privilege  of  the  direct  witness,  and  the  fruits  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  On  his  return  to  England,  he  renewed  his  acquaint- 
ance with  some  of  the  3Ioravian  ministers,  and  held  frequent 
and  profitable  conversations  with  them.  To  these  interviews, 
and  the  prayerful  reading  of  Luther's  Preface  to  the  Epistle 
to  the  Romans,  he  attributes  his  being  made  a  partaker  of 
greater  spiritual  blessings  than  he  had  ever  before  enjoyed. 
With  a  view  to  strengthen  himself  in  the  faith  of  the  Mora- 
vian Church,  by  whose  conversations  and  prayers  he  had  been 
much  edified,  and  even  signally  blessed,  he  performed  a 
journey  to  their  principal  settlement  in  Germany,  attended 
their  meetings,  and  had  free  and  full  conversations  with  their 
most  eminent  men  on  the  subject  of  experimental  and  practi- 
cal godliness,  by  which  his  mind  was  much  enlightened,  and 
his  heart  entirely  established  in  the  great  doctrine  of  justifi- 
cation by  faith,  and  of  the  direct  witness  and  fruit  of  the 


52  TIIK    (illKAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED. 

Holy  Spirit.  After  thus  holding  communion  with  these  pious 
and  orthodox  Christians  for  some  time,  he  returned  to  London 
in  the  fall  of  1738 ;  and  from  that  day  to  the  day  of  his 
death,  which  was  in  the  spring  of  1791;  a  period  of  FIFTY-THREE 
YEARS,  no  other  plan  of  operations  ever  entered  his  head,, 
than  simply  to  get  and  communicate  all  the  good  in  his  power. 
He  ever,  after  that,  preached  with  power  and  effect  the  great 
and  soul-saving  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  in  Christ,  and 
the  witness  and  fruit  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  So  pointed  were 
his  appeals,  and  earnest  his  exhortations  to  repentance,  that 
he  soon  learned  what  was  meant  in  the  Scriptures  by  the 
"  offence  of  the  cross,^'  for  he  was  refused  the  use  of  this, 
and  of  that,  and  then  of  another  church,  to  preach  in !  Then 
it  was  that,  like  the  eloquent  and  pious  Whitefield,  he 
went  into  the  open  fields,  Kensington  Commons,  and  other 
places,  and  preached  the  glorious  doctrines  of  faith  in  Christ, 
which  set  all  England  in  a  blaze  !  Success  crowned  his  efforts 
wherever  he  labored.  Those  who  were  awakened  under  his 
preaching — and  their  names  were  Legion — came  to  him  for 
advice;  and  as  the  number  of  these  rapidly  increased,  he 
found  it  necessary  to  form  them  into  a  society;  and  in  1743 
he  drew  up  those  rules  of  his  societies,  which  have  continued 
to  be  the  general  rules  of  the  Methodist  societies,  both  in 
England  and  America,  to  this  day,  with  scarcely  an  exception. 
This  was  the  first  regular  organization  of  societies  by  Mr. 
Wesley,  and  the  formation  of  classes  followed  soon  after  this. 
Among  those  who  were  converted  under  his  ministry,  and 
joined  his  societies,  were  some  talented  and  educated  young 
men,  and  others  with  but  limited  education,  but  ^'full  of 
faith  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,'^  whom,  notwithstanding  his 
devotion  to  the  established  order  of  things,  he  started  out  to 
preach.  Hence  originated  his  employment  of  lay-preachers, 
an  irregularity  for  which,  though  he  suffered  much  persecu- 
tion, thousands  had  cause  to  be  thankful  in  Europe.     As  tne 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  53 

work  increased  under  the  labors  of  John  and  Charles  Wesley^ 
and  the  preachers  in  their  employ,  it  became  necessary,  in 
order  to  avoid  confusion,  to  reduce  their  operations  to  system, 
and  to  have  a  more  digested  plan.  This  led  to  the  calling  of 
all  the  preachers  together  for  a  Conference,  the  first  of  which 
was  held  in  London  in  June,  1744,  or  one  hundred  and  twelve 
years  ago ;  although  Elder  Graves  says — ^^  Methodism  cannot 
be  called  a  Church  of  Christ,  because  too  young — it  being 
only  sixty-eight  years  old  !'^ 

After  the  organization  of  a  Conference,  the  work  went  on 
more  rapidly  than  ever,  and  soon  spread  over  different  parts 
of  England  and  Wales.  In  his  evangelical  labors,  Mr.  Wesley 
was  assisted  by  several  pious  and  learned  clergymen  of  the 
Established  Church,  not  the  least  efficient  of  whom  were  his 
brother  Charles  and  Mr.  Fletcher.  The  work  spread  over 
Ireland  and  Scotland;  but  it  is  by  no  means  necessary  in  this 
sketch  to  enter  into  further  details  as  to  the  rise  and  progress 
of  Methodism  in  Great  Britain. 

In  1766,  Providence  opened  the  way  for  the  introduction 
of  Methodism  into  America ;  and  the  first  Methodist  society 
was  established  in  the  city  of  New  York  in  that  year.  The 
first  preacher  of  the  Methodists  who  labored  in  New  York 
was  Philip  Embury,  a  local  preacher  who  emigrated  from 
Ireland.  But  Elder  Graves  asserts,  time  and  again,  that 
Methodism  is  '-^  only  sixty-eight  years  old,''  and  is  therefore 
too  young  to  be  called  a  Church  of  Christ !  The  proof  is  that 
its  first  appearance  in  New  York  was  eighty-eight  years  ago, 
showing  a  mistake  on  the  part  of  Elder  Graves  of  twenty 
years,  dating  its  origin  only  back  to  its  introduction  into  the 
United  States !  This  blunder  was  not  a  slip  of  the  pen,  for 
the  writer  dwells  upon  it,  occupies  several  pages  upon  this 
assumed  fact,  and  drives  to  various  conclusions.  He  has 
taken  this  position  either  through  ignorance  or  a  love  of  lying 
— the  reader  may  decide  which. 


64  THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

At  the  Conference  at  Leeds,  in  1768,  Mr.  Wesley  sent  over 
to  the  aid  of  the  cause  in  America  two  additional  preachers, 
Richard  Boardman  and  Joseph  Fillmore;  and  about  that  time, 
Robert  Strawbridge,  a  local  preacher  from  Ireland,  came  over 
and  settled  in  Frederick  county,  in  Maryland.  In  1771, 
Francis  Asbury  and  Richard  Wright  were  sent  over  to  the 
work  in  America.  At  page  109,  vol.  iii.,  of  Mr.  Asbury's 
Jouvual,  in  1773,  he  speaks  of  the  numbers  in  their  societies 
where  he  had  labored — not  having  any  report  from  Mr.  Straw- 
bridge  in  Maryland,  and  others — after  this  wise:  "iVbout  three 
hundred  in  New  York,  two  hundred  and  fifty  in  Philadelphia, 
and  a  few  in  New  Jersey. '^ 

Mr.  Asbury  was  constituted  "  general  assistant"  by  Mr. 
Wesley,  in  1772,  and  began  to  hold  quarterly  meetings,  and 
hear  reports  from  his  brethren  in  the  ministry.  This  desig- 
nation is  better  understood  when  it  is  remembered  that  Mr. 
Wesley  being,  under  God,  the  founder  of  the  societies,  was 
considered  the  head  of  the*  whole  body,  both  in  Europe  and 
America;  and  all  having  charge  of  circuits  under  him  were 
styled  his  "assistants/'  and  those  under  these  assistants  were 
styled  "helpers.^'  In  appointing  Mr.  Asbury  a  general  assist- 
ant, he  constituted  him  the  head  of  all  the  preachers  and 
societies  in  America,  with  power  to  station  the  preachers;  but 
under  the  general  direction  of  Mr.  Wesley  himself,  to  whom 
he  made  his  regular  reports. 

The  first  regular  Conference  ever  held  in  America  con- 
vened in  Philadelphia,  July  4th,  1773,  eighti/-three  years  ago, 
notwithstanding  Elder  Graves  asserts  that  Methodism  is  ''only 
68  years  old,"  and  the  ''North  Carolina  Publishing  Society" 
endorses  his  assertion  !  The  numbers  in  society,  as  reported 
in  the  general  minutes,  were  ELEVEN  HUNDRED  AND  sixty- 
six,  and  the  preachers  in  the  work  were  ten,  laboring  in  New 
York,  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  Maryland,  and  Virginia. 

These  conferences  were  held  every  year,  sometimes  in  one 


THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED.        55 

State  apd  sometimes  in  another — the  membership  and  minis- 
try increasing  rapidly,  until  the  arrival  of  a  very  important 
period  in  the  history  of  Methodism  in  this  country,  the 
organization  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  which 
was  in  1784.  Dr.  Coke,  Richard  Whatcoat,  and  Mr.  Yasey, 
arrived  in  America  in  this  year,  and  proceeded  to  New  Jersey, 
where  they  met  with  Mr.  Asbury  and  others,  and  announced 
to  them  their  intention  to  organize  the  Methodists  of  this 
country  into  an  independent  Episcopal  Church;  and  it  was 
at  once  agreed  to  call  a  General  Conference  at  Baltimore  the 
ensuing  Christmas.  In  conformity  with  this  arrangement, 
December  25th,  1784,  SIXTY  out  of  the  EIGHTY-THREE 
travelling  preachers  then  in  the  connection  assembled  in  the 
city  of  Baltimore,  where  Dr.  Coke  presided,  assisted  by  Mr. 
Asbury ;  and  the  first  act  of  this  General  Conference  was  to 
elect  Dr.  Coke  and  Mr.  Asbury,  by  a  unanimous  vote.  Gene- 
ral Superintendents.  Though  Mr.  Asbury  had  been  appointed 
to  that  office  by  Mr.  "Wesley,  he  was  too  much  devoted  to  the 
mutual  rights  of  ministers  and  of  repuhlican  principles,  to 
act  any  longer  in  that  capacity  independently  of  the  suffrages 
of  his  brethren  over  whom  he  must  preside.  He  did  so 
willingly  when  there  was  a  necessity  for  it,  but  no  looger 
than  was  indicated  by  the  providence  of  God.  The  validity  of 
Mr.  Asbury's  ordination  by  Thomas  Coke,  Doctor  of  Civil 
Law,  Presbyter  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  Superinten- 
dent of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  America,  as  well 
as  the  Methodist  form  of  Church  government,  all  of  which 
are  ridiculed  and  misrepresented  by  Elder  Graves,  will  form 
the  subject-matter  of  a  future  chapter  in  this  work. 

I  again  resume  the  consideration  of  the  character  and 
labors  of  Mr.  Wesley,  than  whom  no  man,  since  the  days  of 
the  apostles,  ever  was  clothed  with  such  a  panoply  as  that 
with  which  he  was  armed.  Bigoted  Calvinistic  Baptists^ 
however,  will  no  more  pardon  Mr.  Wesley  for  the  wounds  he 


56  THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

inflicted  on  their  favorite  tlieorj,  than  the  Koman  Catholics 
will  fori^ive  Calvin  and  Luther  for  striking  such  a  death-blow 
at  the  sale  of  indulgences  and  other  mummeries  sanctioned 
by  that  corrupt  Church.  But  despite  the  malicious  slanders 
of  such  men  as  Elder  Graves,  the  name  of  John  AVesley  will 
ever  be  associated  in  the  minds  of  the  good  and  great,  who 
best  know  his  worth,  with  all  the  excellences  which  adorn 
and  beautify  the  human  character,  when  sanctified  by  grace, 
as  well  as  those  qualifications  which  originate  from  profound 
learning,  an  acute  and  penetrating  mind,  and  a  heart  deeply 
imbued  with  the  grace  of  God,  and  also  a  life  unweariedly 
devoted  to  the  best  of  all  causes.  That  he  was  encompassed 
with  those  infirmities  which  are  inseparable  from  humanity, 
his  friends  and  admirers  never  denied;  and  this  detracts 
nothing  from  his  character,  any  more  than  the  offensive 
ejiithets  applied  to  him,  and  vuhjar  charges  preferred  against 
him,  by  the  miserable  calumniator  of  the  "  Tennessee  Bap- 
tist;" which  can  never  lessen  him  in  the  estimation  of  those 
who  impartially  estimate  worth. 

I  do  not  ask  Elder  Graves  to  contemplate  the  glorious 
achievements  of  Methodism,  under  the  direction  of  John 
AYesley,  but  I  call  upon  the  "North  Carolina  Publishing 
Society  of  the  Baptist  Church"  to  look  calmly  at  its  rise  and 
progress !  I  ask  the  members  of  that  Society  to  go  with  me, 
as  one  of  the  admirers  of  Mr.  Wesley,  to  the  humble  dwell- 
ings of  the  miners  of  Cornwall,  to  the  homely  tents  of  the 
colliers  of  Kingswood  and  Newcastle,  and  to  the  equally 
humble  workshops  of  the  manufacturers  of  Yorkshire,  in 
England,  who  are  still  rejoicing  in  God  their  Saviour  that  a 
Wesley  was  ever  born  into  this  sin-stricken  world,  and  ask 
them  if  they  believe  he  lived  and  died  an  unconverted  man? 
Go  with  me,  gentlemen  of  the  '^Publishing  Society,"  among 
the  backwoodsmen  of  North  America,  and  examine  them  in 
their  lonely  tents;    go   among   the   honest   settlers   on   our 


THE   GREAT   IKON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  57 

western  frontiers^  and  amid  the  interminable  forests  of  our 
far-off  western  wilds,  where  multiplied  thousands  reside  who 
were  brought  into  the  fold  of  Christ  through  the  instrumen- 
tality of  Wesleyan  ministers,  and  ask  them  if  they  think 
the  founder  of  their  Church,  under  God,  was  a  hypocrite? 
Go  with  me  to  the  rich  pastures  and  luxuriant  harvest-fields 
of  your  own  native  Carolina;  enter  the  neat  cottages  and 
stately  mansions  of  the  glorious  Old  North  State,  and  ask 
the  intelligent  and  educated  females  who  are  rejoicing  in  God, 
to  this  very  day,  in  hope  of  future  and  eternal  life,  through 
the  instrumentality  of  the  sermons  and  prayers  of  Wesleyan 
ministers,  if  they  believe  the  venerable  founder  of  their 
Church  was  a  wicked  adulterer?  Go  with  me  to  the  distant 
islands  of  different  seas,  to  the  burning  sands  of  Africa,  to 
Ceylon,  and  other  pagan  countries,  and  ask  the  benighted 
converts  from  heathenism,  through  the  instrumentality  of 
Wesleyan  ministers,  if  they  believe  the  venerable  founder  of 
the  Church  of  which  they  are  now  happy  members  was  a  man 
of  God,  or  an  ambitious  candidate  for  fame  ?  Enter  the  dwell- 
ings of  the  rich  and  fashionable  planters  of  our  own  "■  sunny 
South  -j"  ride  through  and  around  their  extensive  sugar  and 
cotton  plantations,  among  the  sable  sons  and  daughters  of 
Africa,  and  witness  the  blessed  fruits  of  the  orthodox  teach- 
ings, pious  life.  Christian  integrity,  and  triumphant  death  of 
the  great  and  good  Wesley !  Meet  me,  gentlemen,  half  way 
between  Knoxville  and  Raleigh,  our  respective  places  of 
abode,  and  together  let  us  enter  the  log-cabins  of  the  virtuous, 
pious,  happy  peasantry  of  the  "hill-country"  of  Western 
Carolina,  and  ask  them  whether  they  believe  the  facts  set 
forth  in  Mr.  Wesley's  Journal,  or  the  misrepresentations  of 
Elder  Graves!  Ask  any  one  of  them  upon  a  dying-bed, 
whether  they  desire  one  of  Wesley's  sermons  read  to  them, 
or  a  chapter  from  the  "Iron  Wheel''  you  have  so  graciousl;]? 

condescended  to  endorse ! 
3^ 


68  THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED. 

Wlu'ther  WO  send  the  religion  and  Church  government  which 
(Jod  has  handed  down  to  us  through  a  Wesley,  an  Asbury,  a 
Cuke,  and  others,  among  the  neat  cottages  and  stately  mansions 
of  New  England,  or  among  the  wilds  of  Missouri,  Arkansas,  or 
Texas,  the  wilderness  and  solitary  places  are  made  glad  for 
them,  and  the  desert  is  made  to  rejoice  and  blossom  as  the 
rose  !  Methodism  weathered  the  storm  of  persecution  brought 
upon  it  by  Southey,  Smollet,  Toplady,  Nightingale,  and  even 
Lord  John  Kussell,  of  the  British  Parliament;  and  most 
assuredly  it  is  not  to  be  demolished  west  of  our  Alleghany 
range  of  mountains  by  j.  r.  graves,  a  vindictive  little  Baptist 
preacher,  of  exceedingly  doubtful  piety,  as  well  as  of  ques- 
tionable veracity,  and  without  that  force  of  character  requisite 
to  build  up  or  pull  down  any  sect !  Let  Baptist  malice,  with 
its  grim  concomitants,  envy  and  hatred,  tremble  as  it  plots  the 
ruin  of  Methodism,  and  seeks  to  build  up  its  own  perfidious 
and  exclusive  system;  and,  above  all,  let  this  bread-and- 
butter  patriot  of  the  nineteenth  century,  J.  R.  Graves, 
remember  that  his  day  for  fasting  and  humiliation  is  close  at 
hand ! 

The  Reformation  dawned  with  Luther  in  Germany,  but  the 
sun  of  its  glory  rose  with  Methodism  in  England :  the  first 
streaks  of  Protestant  light  were  seen  on  the  horizon  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  but  the  meridian  sun  of  the  Reformation 
shone  in  all  its  brightness  on  the  Wesleys  and  Whitefield  ! 
But  the  United  States,  or  more  properly  North  America,  has 
been  the  land  of  its  triumph  and  its  glory;  and  in  America 
God  has  shown  the  world  what  Methodism  can  suffer  un- 
harmed, and  what  Methodism  can  accomplish.  Yes,  here,  in 
the  glorious  nineteenth  century,  after  slander  and  persecution 
have  done  their  vilest  work,  and  have  tried  in  vain  to  crush 
Methodism  beneath  the  ''  Iron  Wheels"  of  the  chariot  of 
perdition,  she  is  still  'Agoing  forth  conquering  and  to  con- 
quer," as  the  right  arm  of  the  Ix)rd,  when  his  enemies  bow 


THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED.         59 

before  him,   and  the  kingdoms   of   this  world   become  the 
kingdoms  of  God  and  of  his  Christ : 

"0  !  'tis  a  flower  that  cannot  fade, 

That  no  rude  blast  can  chill: 
It  blossoms  in  the  sheltered  shade, 

And  on  the  bleakest  hill ; 
And  every  changing  form  of  time 
Moves  on,  and  sees  it  in  its  prime!" 

That  what  I  have  said  may  not  appear  as  ^'vain  boasting," 
I  will  give  the  facts  and  figures,  as  these  will  deceive  no 
one.  The  self-styled  prophet,  J.R.  Graves,  has  put  on  record 
the  prediction  that  Methodism  must  ere  long  die  out.  He  has 
discovered,  in  a  dream  by  night,  signs  of  a  decreasing  mem- 
bership, ominous  of  death.  I  am  able  to  show,  and  to  prove, 
that  the  increase  of  Methodism,  for  half  a  century  past,  has 
been  steady  and  onward !  This  can  be  easily  shown ;  and  the 
able  editor  of  Zion's  Herald  does  the  work  effectually  in 
his  issue  of  the  24th  of  October,  1855.     He  says : 

The  following  tabic  covers  over  half  a  century.  We  are  governed 
in  our  selection  of  the  starting-points  of  our  decades  by  the  dates  of 
the  national  census.  Our  numbers  for  each  decade  are  for  the  year 
immediately  following  that  on  which  each  census  was  taken : 

Increase  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  by  decades,  from  1791  to  1854. 

In  1791,  Memb.  M.  E.  Church,  63,269,  An  increase  in  10  years  of 

"  1801,      "           "  72,874,        9,605,  or    lb%  per  cent. 

"  1811,      "           "  184,567,  111,693,  or  IbsU        " 

«  1821,      "           "  281,146,       96,579,  or    52>2        " 

"  1831,      «           "  513,114,  331.968,  or    82V<^        " 

"  1841,       «           "  859,811,  346,697,  or    67U        « 

"  1851,  (North  &  South.)  1,251,198,  391,388,  or    -IbU        " 

"  1854,  (North  &  South,)  1,386,661,  135,463  for  the  last  3  years. 

The  next  table  shows  how  the  per  centage  of  our  increase  compares 
with  that  of  the  entire  population  of  the  country : 

The  population  increased  from  1790  to  1800  35.02  per  cent. 

Methodism  "  1791  to  1801  15.20  « 

The  population  "  1800  to  1810  36.45  « 

Methodism  "  1801  to  1811  153.50  « 

The  population  "  1810  to  1820  33.13  " 

Methodism  "  1811  to  1821  52.33  " 

The  population  "  1820  to  1830  33.49  " 

Methodism  "  1821  to  1831  82.50  " 

The  population  "  1830  to  1840  32.67  " 

Methodism  "  1831  to  1841  67.50  " 

The  population  '•'  1840  to  1850  25.87  " 

Methodism  "  1841  to  1S51  45.50  «' 


60        THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

Thus  it  appears  that  the  per  centage  of  our  increase  has  been  deci- 
dedly greater  than  that  of  the  aggregate  population  of  the  country. 

A  comparison  of  our  riiinibers  with  the  whole  population  will  show 
a  rapidly  increasing  ratio.  Thus,  beginning  with  1701,  seven  years 
after  the  organization  of  our  Church,  we  have  the  following  results : 

In  1791  one  Methodist  to  about  every  62]4  of  the  whole  population. 

"  1801  "  "  12}2 

"  1811  "  "  3914  "  " 

«  1821  "  "  30  "  " 

«  1831  «  a  25  "  " 

"  1841  "  "  19U  "  " 

"  1851  "  "  181^  "  " 

These  ratios,  which  do  not  include  the  members  of  various  seceding 
Methodist  bodies,  but  only  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  show,  that  in  the  sixty  years 
previous  to  1852,  our  ratio  to  the  entire  population  has  increased  from 
one  in  sixty-two  and  a  half,  to  one  in  eighteen  and  a  half;  or,  including 
the  various  branches  of  Methodism  not  embraced  in  the  above  table, 
but  numbering  over  one  hundred  and  thirteen  thousand  communi- 
cants, our  ratio  has  advanced  from  one  in  sixty-two  and  a  half  to  one 
in  seventeen;  which  exhibits  a  very  gratifying  increase  on  the  popu- 
lation of  the  country. 

But  Elder  Graves  tells  the  world,  hoastingli/,  on  page  109 
of  his  ^'Iron  Wheel/'  that  Mr.  Wesley's  own  people  in  Geor- 
gia were  "thoroughly  disgusted  with  his  conduct,  and  out- 
raged by  his  arrogance  and  imperial  dictation."  He  informs 
the  public,  in  a  note  to  be  found  on  page  108,  that  a  certain 
Judge  Warren,  of  Albany,  Georgia,  informed  him  that  the  bill 
of  indictment  found  against  Mr.  Wesley,  at  the  instance  of  Mr. 
Causton,  "is  still  preserved  in  the  Court  House  at  Savannah, 
where  it  can  be  seen !"  Wonderful  preservation  this !  And  for 
the  information  of  Judge  Warren,  we  can  say  that  the  bill  of 
indictment  upon  which  J.  R.  Graves  was  convicted  and  fined 
$7,500  and  costs,  is  still  preserved  in  the  Court  House  at 
Lexington,  Henderson  county,  Tennessee,  "where  it  can  be 
seen"  likewise !  A  further  record  of  the  fact  can  be  found 
in  the  office  of  the  Supreme  Court  at  Jackson,  Tennessee, 
where  the  decision  of  the  court  at  Lexington  was  affirmed; 
and  to  evade  the  payment  of  this  fine  and  these  costs,  J.  R. 
Graves  mortgaged   his  property  to  some  Baptist  friends  at 


THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED.        61 

Nashville,  where  the  record  is  still  preserved,  and  ^^can  be 
seen."  What  a  country  ours  is  for  preserving  bills  of  indict- 
ment and  records  of  fraudulent  mortgages ! 

But  Elder  Graves  tells  us  that  '' Methodism  is  only  sixty- 
eight  years  old,"  and  is  therefore  too  young  to  be  a  Church 
of  Christ;  while  the  Baptist  Church  is  an  old  and  venerable 
Church,  as  old  as  the  hills,  and  therefore  is  the  Church  of 
Christ!  Let  us  compare  the  strength  of  the  two  denomina- 
tions iu  Georgia,  where  the  founder  of  one  is  in  such  bad 
odor! 

I  have  procured  the  published  Minutes  of  the  late  Baptist 
Convention  of  Georgia,  and  also  the  Minutes  of  the  Georgia 
Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  for 
the  same  year,  (1855,)  and  I  presume  them  both  to  be  correct, 
as  they  are  the  official  reports  of  these  grave  bodies  of  men. 
According  to  these  statistics,  the  Missionary  Baptists,  who 
hold  their  connection  with  the  Convention — and  with  this 
wing  of  the  numerous  Baptist  family  Elder  Graves  is  asso- 
ciated— these  number  in  Georgia  35,130  whites,  and  19,510 
colored,  after  deducting  2000  whites  and  colored  of  an  asso- 
ciation within  the  bounds  of  the  State  of  Florida,  who  are 
likewise  connected  with  said  Convention.  These  Minutes 
next  set  forth  that  there  are  11,968  "Primitive  Baptists," 
whites  and  colored — commonly  called  Hard  Shells  or  Iron 
Jackets — a  race  of  men  who  ''play  upon  a  harp  of  a  thousand 
string-s,  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect!"  Next  in  order 
these  minutes  report  3,964  Baptists,  white  and  colored,  who 
hold  no  connection  with  either  of  the  former,  but  set  up  ''  on 
their  own  hook."  These  numbers  include  all  in  the  State  of 
Georgia  who  hold  to  tlie  exclusive  mode  of  baptism  hy 
immersion  I 

Now,  let  us  turn  to  the  Minutes  of  the  Georgia  Conference, 
and  see  what  the  strength  of  the  Methodists  is.  They  set 
down  the  numbers  as  follows: — 50,213  whites;   21,857  col- 


62  THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

ored;  552  local  preacliers — making  in  all,  whites  and  colored, 
within  the  bounds  of  the  Conference,  72,022.  Add  to  this 
6000,  the  number  in  sixteen  counties  in  Georgia,  included  in 
the  Florida  Conference,  and  not  reported  in  these  Minutes, 
we  have  the  number  of  78,022.  There  are  11,000  Protes- 
tant Methodists  in  Georgia,  who  may  be  numbered  with  the 
Episcopal  Methodists,  as  the  11,908  Hard  Shells  are  with  the 
Missionary  Baptists.  Adding,  then,  this  11,000  to  the  former, 
we  have  the  number  of  89,022  Methodists  in  Georgia.  But 
include  the  552  local  preachers  and  200  travelling  preachers, 
who  are  as  legitimately  members  of  the  Church  as  the  Baptist 
clergy  are,  and  we  have  90,374  Methodists  in  Georgia ! 

Now,  gentle  reader,  the  comparative  numerical  strength  of 
these  contending  denominations  in  the  State  of  Georgia  is  as 
90,374  to  70,572 ;  or,  deduct  the  70,572  Baptists  from  the 
90,374  Methodists,  and  the  young  Church  exhibits  a  majority 
of  19,802  over  the  old  Church,  and  emphatically  the  Church, 
to  the  exclusion  of  all  others !  I  will  add  that  the  people  of 
Georgia  place  a  different  estimate  upon  the  doctrines  and 
polity  of  Methodism  from  that  given  in  the  vile  production 
of  this  man  Graves.  It  will  not  be  contended  that  the  "  lower 
classes"  constitute  the  Methodist  forces  in  Georgia.  I  know, 
of  my  own  knowledge  and  from  actual  personal  observation,  that 
there  is  as  much  of  wealth,  talents,  respectability,  and  in- 
fluence in  the  Methodist  Church  in  Georgia  as  any  Church 
can  boast  of,  and,  if  the  reader  please,  a  little  more,  because 
their  numbers  are  greater  than  those  of  any  other  Church. 

Many  more  particulars  of  Mr.  Wesley's  life,  both  of  a 
public  and  private  nature,  might  have  been  detailed ;  but  it 
will  be  remembered  that  I  am  not  writing  out  his  life,  but 
defending  certain  of  his  acts;  and,  I  hope,  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  enable  the  intelligent  reader,  by  this  time,  to  form  a 
correct  opinion  of  his  character.  Let  us  remember  that  some 
particular  circumstances,  or  a  few  occasional  acts  in  a  man's 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  63 

life,  do  not  form  his  character,  but  the  general  tenor  of  his 
conduct;  because  this  shows  some  fixed  principle  that  uni- 
formly operates  upon  him,  which,  with  a  correspondent  prac- 
ticej  forms  his  character.  (I  am  aware  that  Elder  Graves  will 
object  to  this  rule,  because,  in  his  case,  it  would  expel  him 
from  any  tolerably  civilized  Church  in  America  !)  And  when 
a  long,  virtuous,  and  useful  life  is  crowned  with  AN  end  suit- 
able to  it,  as  was  the  case  with  John  Wesley,  death  puts  a 
stamp  upon  his  virtues,  which  shows  us  they  were  not  spurious 
coiuj  but  genuine.  If  the  candid  reader  will  judge  of  Mr. 
Wesley  by  this  rule,  he  will  agree  with  me  that,  whatever 
failings  as  a  man  he  may  have  had,  he  possessed  a  degree  of 
excellence,  and  acted  it  out,  to  which  few  men  have  attained 
in  this  life. 

But,  to  complete  the  picture  which  I  have  intended  to 
draw,  it  is  necessary,  now,  only  to  contemplate  him  as  he  de- 
livered up  his  commission  into  the  hands  of  his  great  Master. 
Passing  over  a  variety  of  thrilling  incidents,  I  give  the  copy 
of  a  letter  he  addressed  to  the  Lord  Bishop  of  London,  some 
of  whose  clergy  had  forbid  Mr.  Wesley's  preachers  occupying 
their  pulpits : — 

My  Lord, — I  am  a  dying  man,  having  already  one  foot  in  the  grave 
Humanly  speaking,  I  cannot  long  creep  upon  the  earth,  being  now 
nearer  ninety  than  eighty  years  of  age.  But  I  cannot  die  in  peace 
before  I  have  discharged  this  office  of  Christian  love  to  your  Lord- 
ship, I  write  without  ceremony,  as  neither  hoping  nor  fearing  any 
thing  from  yotu'  Lordship,  or  from  any  man  living.  And  I  ask,  in 
the  name  and  in  the  presence  of  Him  to  whom  both  you  and  I  are 
shortly  to  give  an  account,  why  do  you  trouble  those  that  are  quiet 
in  the  land? — those  that  fear  God  and  work  righteousness?  Does 
your  Lordship  know  what  the  Methodists  are  ?  that  many  thousands 
of  them  are  zealous  members  of  the  Church  of  England  ?  and  strongly 
attached,  not  only  to  his  Majesty,  but  to  his  present  ministry?  Why 
should  your  Lordship,  setting  religion  out  of  the  question,  throw 
away  such  a  body  of  respectable  friends  ?  Is  it  for  their  religious 
sentiments  ?  Alas,  -mj  Lord,  is  this  a  time  to  persecute  any  man  for 
conscience'  sake  ?  I  beseech  you,  my  Lord,  do  as  you  would  be  done 
to.    You  are  a  man  of  sense,  you  are  a  man  of  learning ;  nay,  I  verily 


64        THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

believe  (what  is  of  infinitely  more  value)  you  are  a  man  of  piety. 
Then  think,  and  let  think.  I  pray  God  to  bless  you  with  the  choicest 
of  his  blessings. — I  am,  my  Lord,  etc.,  John  Wesley. 

After  this,  Dr.  "Whitehead,  on  page  540  of  his  Life  of 
Wesley,  makes  these  remarks  : — 

Mr.  Wesley  began  now  to  feel  the  infirmities  of  age  increase  fast 
upon  him,  though  he  continued  his  usual  labors  without  complaint. 
But  in  January,  1790,  he  observes,  "I  am  now  an  old  man,  decayed 
from  head  to  foot.  My  eyes  are  dim  :  my  right  hand  shakes  much : 
my  mouth  is  hot  and  dry  every  morning:  I  have  a  lingering  fever  al- 
most every  day ;  and  my  motion  is  weak  and  slow.  However,  blessed 
be  God,  I  do  not  slack  my  labor.  I  can  preach  and  write  still."  And 
on  June  28,  his  birthdaj',  he  further  observes,  "  This  day  I  enter  into 
my  eighty-eighth  year.  For  above  eighty-six  years,  I  found  none  of 
the  infirmities  of  old  age :  my  eyes  did  not  wax  dim,  neither  was  my 
natural  strength  abated.  But  last  August,  I  found  almost  a  sudden 
change :  my  eyes  were  so  dim  that  no  glasses  would  help  me ;  my 
strength  likewise  quite  forsook  me,  and  probably  will  not  return  in 
this  world.  But  I  feel  no  pain  from  head  to  foot,  only  it  seems  nature 
is  exhausted,  and,  humanly  speaking,  will  sink  more  and  more,  till 

"'The  weary  springs  of  life  stand  still  at  last.'" 

After  this  he  began  to  sink — was  confined  to  his  own  room 
and  his  bed )  and  I  will  let  Dr.  Whitehead  finish  the  melan- 
choly narrative,  which  terminates,  however,  in  the  triumphant 
Christian  death  of  John  Wesley  : — 

He  asked  what  the  words  were  from  which  he  had  preached  a  little 
before  at  Hampstead.  Being  told  they  were  these:  "For  ye 
know  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  though  he  was  rich, 
yet  for  your  sakes  he  became  poor,  that  ye  through  his  poverty  might 
be  rich,"  he  replied,  "That  is  the  foundation,  the  only  foundation, 
and  there  is  no  other." — This  day  I  desired  he  might  be  asked  if  he 
would  have  any  other  physician  called  in  to  attend  him ;  but  this  he 
absolutely  refused.  It  is  remarkable  that  he  sufi'ered  so  little  pain, 
never  complaining  of  any  during  his  illness,  but  once  of  a  pain  in  his 
breast.  This  was  a  restless  night. — Tuesday  morning,  he  sang  two 
verses  of  a  hymn :  then  lying  still,  as  if  to  recover  strength,  he  called 
for  pen  and  ink ;  but  when  it  was  brought  he  could  not  write.  A 
person  said,  "  Let  me  write  for  you,  sir :  tell  me  what  you  would  say." 
He  replied,  "Nothing,  but  that  God  is  with  us."  In  the  forenoon  he 
said,  "I  will  get  up."  While  they  were  preparing  his  clolhes,  he 
broke  out,  in  a  manner  that  astonished  all  who  were  about  him,  in 
singing, 


THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  65 

I'll  praise  my  Maker  while  I've  breath, 
And  when  my  voice  is  lost  in  death 

Praise  shall  employ  my  nobler  powers : 
My  days  of  praise  shall  ne'er  be  past 
"While  life,  and  thought,  and  being  last. 

Or  immortality  endures! 

Having  got  him  into  his  chair,  they  observed  him  change  for  death 
But  he,  regardless  of  his  dying  body,  said  with  a  weak  voice,  "Lord, 
thou  givest  strength  to  those  who  can  speak,  and  to  those  who  cannot. 
Speak,  Lord,  to  all  our  hearts,  and  let  them  know  that  thou  loosest 
tongues."     He  then  sang, 

To  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost, 
Who  sweetly  all  agree — 

Here  his  voice  failed.  After  gasping  for  breath,  he  said,  "Now  we 
have  done  all."  He  was  then  laid  on  the  bed,  from  whence  he  rose 
no  more.  After  resting  a  little,  he  called  to  those  who  were  with  him 
"to  pray  and  praise."  Soon  after  he  said,  "Let  me  be  buried  in 
nothing  but  what  is  woollen,  and  let  my  corpse  be  carried  in  my 
coflSn  into  the  chapel."  And  again  called  upon  them  to  "pray 
and  praise ;"  and  taking  each  by  the  hand,  and  affectionately 
saluting  them,  bade  them  farewell.  Attempting  afterwards  to  say 
something  which  they  could  not  understand,  he  paused  a  little,  and 
then,  with  all  the  remaining  strength  he  had,  said,  "The  best  of  all 
is,  God  is  with  us."  And  again,  lifting  his  hand,  he  repeated  the 
same  words  in  a  holy  triumph,  "The  best  of  all  is,  God  is  Avith  us." 
Something  being  given  him  to  moisten  his  lips,  he  said,  "  It  will  not 
do  :  we  must  take  the  consequence.  Never  mind  the  poor  carcase." 
Being  told  that  his  brother's  widow  was  come,  he  said,  "  He  givetli 
his  servants  rest;"  thanked  her  as  she  pressed  his  hand,  and  affec- 
tionately endeavored  to  kiss  her.  His  lips  being  again  wet,  he  re- 
peated his  usual  grace  after  a  meal:  "We  thank  thee,  0  Lord,  for 
these  and  all  thy  mercies :  bless  the  Church  and  King,  grant  us  truth 
and  peace,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord."  After  some  pause,  he 
said,  "The  clouds  drop  fatness.  The  Lord  is  with  us:  the  God  of 
Jacob  is  our  refuge."  He  again  called  them  t(rprayer,  and  appeared 
fervently  to  join  in  their  petitions. 

Most  of  the  following  night  he  often  attempted  to  repeat  the  psalm 
before  mentioned,  but  could  only  get  out,  "I'll  praise!  I'll  praise!" 
On  Wednesday  morning  his  end  drew  near.  Mr.  Bradford,  his  old 
and  faithful  friend,  who,  with  the  affection  of  a  son,  had  attended  him 
for  many  years,  now  prayed  with  him ;  and  the  last  word  he  was 
heard  to  articulate  was,  "  Farewell!"  A  few  minutes  before  ten,  on 
the  second  day  of  March,  while  a  number  of  friends  were  kneeling 
around  his  bed,  died  Mr.  John  Wesley,  without  a  groan.  He  was  in 
the  eighty-eighth  year  of  his  age,  had  been  sixty-five  years  in  the 
ministry ;  and  the  preceding  pages  will  be  a  lasting  memorial  of  his 
uncommon  zeal,  diligence,  and  usefulness  in  his  Master's  work  for 
more  than  half  a  century.  His  death  was  an  admirable  close  of  sc 
laborious  and  useful  a  life. 


66  THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

Mai'ch  the  9tli  -was  the  day  appointed  for  his  interment.  The 
preachers  then  in  London,  to  my  utter  astonishment,  insisted  that  I 
shoukl  deliver  the  funeral  discourse ;  and  the  executors  afterwards 
approved  of  the  appointment.  The  int^tion  was  to  carry  th^  corpse 
into  the  chapel,  and  place  it  in  a  raised  situation  before  the  pulpit 
during  the  service.  But  the  crowds  which  came  to  see  the  body  whi4« 
it  lay  in  the  cotfin,  both  in  the  private  house,  and  especially  in  the 
chapel  the  day  before  the  funeral,  were  so  great  that  his  friends  were 
apprehensive  of  a  tumult  if  they  should  proceed  on  the  plan  first  in- 
tended. It  was  therefoje  resolved,  the  evening  before,  to  bu^y  him 
between  five  and  six  in  the  morning.  Though  the  tim^  of  notice  to 
his  friends  was  short,  and  the  design  itself  was  spoken  of  with  great 
caution,  yet  a  considerable  number  of  persons  attended  at  that  early 
hour.  The  late  Rev.  Mr.  Richardson,  who  now  lies  with  him  in  the 
same  vault,  read  the  funeral  service,  in  a  manner  that  made  it  pecu- 
liarly affecting.  The  discourse,  which  was  afterwards  printed,  was 
delivered  in  the  chapel,  at  the  hour  appointed  in  the  forenoon,  to  an 
astonishing  multitude  of  people,  among  whom  were  many  ministers 
of  the  gospel,  both  of  the  Establishment  and  the  Dissenters.  The 
audience  was  still  and  solemn  as  night ;  and  all  seemed  to  carry  away 
with  them  enlarged  views  of  Mr.  Wesley's  character,  and  serious  im- 
pressions of  the  importance  of  religion  and  the  utility  of  Methodism. 

The  death  of  Mr.  Wesley  attracted  the  public  notice  beyond  any 
former  example,  perhaps,  of  a  clergyman,  however  dignified.  It 
being  generally  known  that  he  died  as  he  had  lived,  and  evinced  in 
death  the  uprightness  and  integrity  of  his  life,  the  impression  on  the 
public  mind  in  favor  of  his  character  and  of  Methodism  was  almost 
universal ;  so  that  some  persons  said  Mr.  Wesley  will  do  more  good 
by  his  death  than  he  did  in  his  whole  life.  This,  however,  is  certain, 
that  a  door  of  usefulness  was  now  opened  to  the  Methodist  preachers 
unknown  at  any  former  period. 

The  following  inscription,  though  in  my  judgment  not  worthy  of 
Mr,  Wesley,  has  since  his  interment  been  put  on  his  tomb : — 

To  the  Memory  of 

The  Venerable  John  Wesley,  A.  M., 

Late  Fellow  of  Lincoln  College,  Oxford. 

This  Great  Light  arose 

(By  the  singular  Providence  of  God) 

To  enlighten  these  Nations, 

And  to  revive,  enforce,  and  defend 

The  Pure,  Apostolical  Doctrines  and  Practices  of 

The  primitive  CHURCH: 

Which  he  continued  to  do,  by  his  Writings  and  his 

Labors, 

For  more  than  Half  a  Century: 

And,  to  his  inexpressible  Joy, 

Not  only  beheld  their  Influence  extending, 

And  their  Efficacy  witnessed. 


THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED.        67 

In  the  hearts  and  Lives  of  Many  Thousands, 

As  well  in  the  Western  World,  as  in  these 

Kingdoms  : 

But  also,  far  above  all  human  Povrer  or  Expectation, 

Lived  to  see  Provision  made,  by  the  singular  Grace 

of  God, 

For  their  Continuance  and  Establishment, 

To  the  Joy  of  future  Generations  ! 

Reader,  irthou  art  constrained  to  bless  the  Instrument, 

Give  God  the  Glory  ! 

After  having  languished  a  feio  days,  He  at  length  finished 

his  Course  and  his  Life  together :  gloriously 

triumphing  over  Death,  March  2,  An. 

Dom.  1791,  in  the  eighty-eighth  Year 

of  his  Age. 

The  following  is  the  inscription  on  the  marble  tablet  erected 
to  his  memory  in  the  chapel  where  he  labored  so  long  and  so 
f.uccessfully,  City  Road,  London  : — 

5a:nii  to  i^t  JHjemors 

Of  the  Rev.  JOHN  WESLEY,  M.  A., 

Sometime  Fellow  of  Lincoln  College,  Oxford  : 

A  Man  in  Learning  and  sincere  Piety 

Scarcely  inferior  to  any : 

In  Zeal,  Ministerial  Labors,  and  extensive  Usefulness, 

Superior,  perhaps,  to  all  Men, 

Since  the  days  of  St.  Paul. 

Regardless  of  Fatigue,  personal  Danger,  and  Disgrace, 

He  went  out  into  the  highways  and  hedges, 

Calling  Sinners  to  Repentance, 

And  Publishing  the  Gospel  of  Peace. 

He  was  the  Founder  of  the  Methodist  Societies, 

And  the  chief  Promoter  and  Patron 

Of  the  Plan  of  Itinerant  Preaching, 

Which  he  extended  through  Great  Britain  and  Ireland, 

The  West  Indies,  and  America, 

With  unexampled  Success. 

He  was  born  the  17th  of  June,  1703  ; 

And  died  the  2d  of  March,  1791, 

In  sure  and  certain  hope  of  Eternal  Life, 

Through  the  Atonement  and  Mediation  of  a  Crucified  Saviour 

He  was  sixty-five  Years  in  the  Ministry, 
And  fifty-two  an  Itinerant  Preacher: 


C8  TIIK    (.JUKAT    IRON    -WHEEL    EXAMINED. 

He  lived  to  pec,  in  these  Kingdoms  only, 

About  three  hundred  Itinerant, 

And  one  thousand  Local  Preachers, 

Raised  up  from  the  midst  of  his  own  People ; 

And  eighty  thousand  Persons  in  the  Societies  under  his  care. 

Ilis  Name  will  be  ever  had  in  grateful  Remembrance 

By  all  who  rejoice  in  the  universal  Spread 

Of  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 

Soli  Deo  Gloria. 
[Glory  to  God  alone.] 

INSCRIPTION    ON    HIS    COFFIN  I 

JOHANNES  WESLEY,  A.  M., 
Olim  Soc.  Coll.  Lin.  Oxon. 

Ob.  2  do.  die  Martii,  1791. 
An.  JEt.  88.* 

It  would  be  superfluous,  in  closing  this  account  of  a  man 
at  once  so  extraordinary  and  so  great,  to  attempt  any  further 
delineation  of  liis  character,  since  this  has  been  done  so  ably 
by  Messrs.  Whitehead,  Moore,  and  Watson,  that  nothing  can 
easily  be  added  with  good  effect.  I  have  enlarged  to  the  ex- 
tent herein  found,  because  this  work  will  fall  into  many  hands, 
and  be  read  by  many  persons,  who  otherwise  might  never  see 
the  facts,  and  still  be  annoyed  by  quotations  from  the  vile, 
not  to  say  infamous  and  slanderous  production  of  J.  R. 
Graves!  The  injustice  done  to  Mr.  Wesley's  memory  by 
the  work  I  am  replying  to,  is  calculated  to  prepossess  many  a 
youthful  mind  with  strong  and  early  prejudices  against  one 
of  the  most  devoted  and  the  most  honored  ambassadors  of 
Christ  that  have  ever  graced  any  age  or  nation  since  the  days 
of  the  holy  apostles.  The  influence  of  such  prejudices  can 
only  be  met  by  a  cheap  work  of  this  kind,  extensively  cir- 
culated, as  I  have  reason  to  believe  this  will  be.     Moreover, 

*  "John  Wesley,  Master  of  Arts,  formerly  Fellow  of  Lincoln  College, 
Oxford,  died  on  the  second  day  of  March,  1791,  in  the  eighty-eighth 
year  of  his  age." 


THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED.  69 

in  order  to  counteract  the  influence  of  sucli  prejudices,  even 
against  the  Christian  denomination  of  which  that  eminent 
man  was,  under  God,  the  founder,  it  has  been  of  the  utmost 
importance  that  I  should  show  wlio  J.  R.  Graves  is,  and  to 
what  degree  of  credit  his  assertions  are  entitled.  This  is  at 
once  my  apology  and  justification  for  the  seeming  severity  and 
manifest  personalities  I  use. 

The  following  description  of  Mr.  ^yesley's  person,  which  is 
taken  from  his  life  by  Dr.  Whitehead,  will  be  full  of  interest 
to  most  readers  of  the  preceding  pages ;  and  certainly  will  be 
more  agreeable  to  those  who  are  members  of  the  great  reli- 
gious family  of  which  he  was,  under  God,  the  father: — 

The  figure  of  Mr.  Wesley  was  remarkable.  His  stature  was  low  : 
his  habit  of  body,  in  every  period  of  life,  the  reverse  of  corpulent, 
and  expressive  of  strict  temperance  and  continual  exercise ;  and  not- 
withstanding his  small  size,  his  step  was  firm,  and  his  appearance, 
till  within  a  few  years  of  his  death,  vigorous  and  muscular.  His 
face,  for  an  old  man,  was  one  of  the  finest  we  have  seen.  A  clear, 
smooth  forehead,  an  aquiline  nose,  an  eye  the  brightest  and  most 
piercing  that  can  be  conceived,  and  a  freshness  of  complexion  scarcely 
over  to  be  found  at  his  years,  and  impressive  of  the  most  perfect 
kealth,  conspired  to  render  him  a  venerable  and  interesting  figure. 
Few  have  seen  him  without  being  struck  with  his  appearance ;  and 
many,  who  had  been  greatly  prejudiced  against  him,  have  been  known 
to  change  their  opinion  the  moment  they  were  introduced  into  his 
presence.  In  his  countenance  and  demeanor,  there  was  a  cheerfulness 
mingled  with  gravity ;  a  sprightliness,  which  was  the  natural  result 
of  an  unusual  flow  of  spirits,  and  yet  was  accompanied  with  every 
mark  of  the  most  serene  tranquillity.  His  aspect,  particularly  in 
profile,  had  a  strong  character  of  astuteness  and  penetration. 

In  dress,  he  was  a  pattern  of  neatness  and  simplicity.  A  narrow 
plaited  stock,  a  coat  with  a  small  upright  collar,  no  buckles  at  his 
knees,  no  silk  or  velvet  in  any  part  of  his  apparel,  and  a  head  as 
white  as  snow,  gave  an  idea  of  something  primitive  and  apostolic : 
while  an  air  of  neatness  and  cleanliness  was  diffused  over  his  whole 
person. 

But  one  conclusive  evidence  of  the  greatness  and  good- 
ness of  the  deceased  Wesley  is,  that,  though  dead  and  gone  to 
his  reward  in  heaven,  he  is  still  the  object  of  the  most  ma- 
lignant, wicked,    and   ungentlemanly   abuse   from    sectarian 


70        THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

bigots  of  all  Churches,  and  especially  the  jJ'fJ-pcn  orators  and 
ichisl'T/shop  saints  of  the  Baptist  denomination  !  Go  on,  ye 
insignificant  revilers  !  spit  3'our  venom  at  his  fair  fame,  spew 
your  slime  upon  the  escutcheon  of  his  character,  empty  your 
polluted  stomachs  of  all  the  pent-up  spleen  that  is  in  you,  for 
you  cannot  harm  the  illustrious  dead.  An  enlightened  public 
know  his  history,  his  principles,  his  ability,  and  his  unex- 
ampled usefulness;  and  the  tongues  and  pens  of  slander  can- 
not detract  from  either ! 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  71 


CHAPTER   IV. 

Opposition  to  Methodism — Methodism  "an  accident,  and  of  human 
invention" — Methodism  not  the  work  of  design,  but  of  Providence 
— Mr.  Wesley  the  author  of  Episcopacy — Ordination  of  Dr.  Coke — 
Deacons,  elders,  and  bishops,  considered  as  orders  in  the  ministry 
— Testimony  of  Clarke,  Watson,  Emory,  Stillingfleet,  and  Dr.  Miller, 
in  reference  to  Episcopacy — The  Baptist  the  only  Church  of  Christ 
on  earth ! 

The  gross  misstatements  of  Lord  John  Russell,  both  in  the 
British  Parliament  and  through  the  press,  and  of  other 
designing  politicians  and  wicked  men,  show  that  Methodism 
has  been  a  prominent  object  of  attack  by  the  enemies  of 
Christianity,  as  well  in  Europe  as  in  America.  Sectarian 
bigotry,  too,  and  ambitious  and  corrupt  clergymen,  have  never 
ceased  their  warfare  against  Methodism,  as  may  be  seen  by  a 
reference  to  the  coarse  and  bitter  attacks  of  such  men  as 
J.  R.  Graves.  In  America,  as  also  in  Europe,  her  doctrines 
were  first  assailed,  and  then  her  polity.  But  on  both  conti- 
nents, and  in  each  case,  she  has  maintained  her  ground ;  and 
the  struggle  has  both  added  to  her  strength  and  increased  her 
glory. 

That  objections  and  anathemas  should  be  gravely  thrown 
out  against  the  ecclesiastical  economy  of  Methodism,  by  Epis- 
copalians and  Presbyterians,  and  other  sects  having  themselves 
forms  of  Chui^ch  government,  might  reasonably  enough  be 
expected;    but  for  Baptists,  whose  government  is  ^^ without 


72  THE    OHEAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED 

form  and  void,"  as  was  our  earth  before  the  Creator  restored 
it  to  order,  to  be  lecturing  against  the  government  of  the 
Methodist  Church,  is  certainly  ridiculous ! 

The  loud  and  often-reiterated  clamor  of  heresy  in  doctrines, 
had  scarcely  died  upon  the  ear  of  Methodism,  until  she  was 
able  to  discover,  from  pretty  clear  and  unequivocal  indications, 
that  it  had  only  yielded  to  a  different  mode  of  attack ;  and 
that,  while  opposition  was  thus  changing  its  character,  it  was 
abating  nothing,  either  of  its  rancor  or  its  activity.  As 
Methodists,  we  can  boast,  with  the  Keformers  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  that  the  popular  voice  is  with  us  in  doctrines;  and 
a  knowledge  of  this  fact  on  the  part  of  other  denominations 
has  forced  them  to  take  our  doctrines  kindly  by  the  hand, 
and  bid  them  God-speed  !  No  sooner  did  this  suspension  of 
hostilities  against  our  doctrines  take  place,  than  an  open  attack 
upon  our  Church  government  was  brought  about. 

I  am  within  bounds,  I  think,  when  I  affirm,  as  I  now  do, 
that  300  out  of  the  570  pages  of  Elder  Graves's  book,  are 
abuse  and  misrepresentation  of  the  government  of  the  Method- 
ist Episcopal  Church ;  and  as  much  of  this  is  a  repetition  of 
the  same  slang,  some  original,  some  from  other  authors,  both 
with  and  without  credit,  I  need  only  take  up  the  main  points, 
and  in  answering  these,  I  answer  the  whole  work. 

On  page  66,  Elder  Graves  charges  — '' Methodism  is  an 
accident — Mr.  Wesley  was  opposed  to  Episcopacy — did  not 
believe  in  three  orders — the  system  of  Methodism  is  purely 
of  human  invention." 

And  on  page  73,  in  continuing  the  subject,  he  says :  '^We 
understand  by  Episcopacy,  three  separate  and  distinct 
ORDERS  IN  the  MINISTRY,  and  that  of  Bishops  as  the  third 

ORDER,  POSSESSING  A  DIVINE  RIGHT  TO  OVERRULE  ALL." 

1.  The  evidence  is  before  the  world,  that  the  distinguished 
founder  of  3Iethodism  was  fully  qualified  for  and  regularly 
called  to  his  work — a  work  which  has  proved  to  be  eminently 


THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED.        73 

the  work  of  God;    and  whether  by  ^^ accident"   or  design, 
matters  not. 

2.  The  measures  and  means  adopted  by  Mr.  Wesley  for 
carrying  on  this  work  were  sanctioned  of  God,  for  the  spirit- 
ual good  of  mankind,  to  an  extent  that  no  other  man's  labors 
have  been  since  the  days  of  the  apostles.  But  Mr.  Wesley 
was  led  into  this  work  without  any  previously  digested  plan 
of  his  own,  and  was  conducted  forward,  not  by  ^^  accident," 
but  by  the  indications  of  Divine  providence  and  grace. 

3.  Mr.  Wesley  was  so  far  from  setting  out  in  his  career,  as 
charged  by  this  man  Graves,  with  a  view  of  putting  himself 
at  the  head  of  a  sect,  that  his  sole  object  was  to  do  good — to 
revive  primitive  Christianity  in  the  Established  Church,  of 
which  he  was  a  minister,  in  conformity  to  the  letter  and  spirit 
of  its  own  articles  of  faith  and  formularies  of  devotion,  which 
had  been  shamefully  departed  from  and  neglected  for  years. 
And  for  this  work  he  was  fiercely  opposed,  and  bitterly  perse- 
cuted, by  the  corrupt,  dissipated,  and  carnal  clergy  of  his  own 
Established  Church,  as  well  as  by  the  Dissenters  and  papists, 
who  were  still  more  corrupt,  and  with  whose  loose  code  of 
morals  Mr.  Wesley's  teachings  were  at  war,  as  they  still  are 
with  tne  manner  of  life  led  by  J.  R.  Graves !  Here  a  crisis 
arose  in  Mr.  Wesley's  aflfairs,^  which  forced  him  either  to  act 
contrary  to  the  teachings  of  God's  word  and  Spirit,  and  relin- 
quish his  good-begun  work,  or  to  become  the  leader  of  a  new 
and  a  distinct  sect.  He  chose  the  latter,  as  I  think, 
wisely;  for  which  bad  men  and  designing  hypocrites  will  long 
continue  to  abuse  him,  and  for  which  good  men  and  true  will 
as  long  admire  him  in  this  life,  and  multiplied  thousands  will 
bless  God  for  it  in  eternity !  Well  may  I  exclaim,  in  the 
delightfully  poetic  language  of  Charles  Wesley — 

When  he  first  the  work  begun, 

Small  and  feeble  was  his  day: 
Now  the  word  doth  swiftly  run, 

Now  it  wins  its  wid'ning  way. 


74  THE    GREAT    IRON    WUEEL    EXAMINED. 

4.  Nor  is  Methodism,  though  '^  an  accident/'  indebted  for 
any  part  of  this  success  to  any  unworthy  compromise  with 
either  the  follies,  the  errors,  or  the  vices  of  the  age.  In  a 
steady,  firm,  and  uncompromising  opposition  to  them  all.  and  in 
zealous  and  persevering  efforts  for  the  recovery  of  those  who 
have  been  unhappily  lured  into  their  destructive  paths,  she 
yields  to  no  other  Church  in  Europe  or  America.  She  has 
interposed  her  instructions,  her  exhortations,  her  prayers  and 
her  tears,  between  the  impious  offenders  of  God's  laws,  and 
the  dreadful  catastrophe  with  which  they  were  threatened ; 
and  without  regard  to  rank,  character,  wealth,  or  circum- 
stances, she  has  pursued  the  vicious  into  all  their  retreats. 
Into  the  most  degraded  abodes  of  human  wretchedness  she 
has  found  her  way,  and  has  been  made  the  honored  instru- 
ment of  diffusing,  with  distinguished  and  unequalled  success, 
the  blessings  of  the  gospel  of  peace ;  to  which  blessings,  in  all 
probability,  they  would  have  remained  entire  strangers,  but 
for  the  existence  of  '^an  accident  V 

5.  From  among  the  miners  and  colliers  of  Europe,  and  the 
poor  of  America,  and  the  poor  everywhere,  for  whose  souls 
none  seemed  to  care,  she  has  succeeded  in  rescuing  thousands 
from  the  dominion  of  destructive  habits,  and  from  the  very 
confines  of  a  dreadful  ruin ;  and  if  to  be  the  instrument  of 
converting  multitudes  from  the  error  of  their  ways,  and  of 
turning  them  from  Satan  to  God,  be  desirable  and  praise- 
worth}',  in  this  honor  a  Church,  the  creature  of  "an  accident," 
has  participated  more  largely  than  any  other  in  the  land. 
Indeed,  some  of  her  brightest  ornaments  are  those  who, 
through  her  instrumentality,  have  been  rescued  from  igno- 
rance, obscurity,  and  vice.  And  there  are,  at  this  day,  thou- 
sands in  the  communion  of  the  Bajytist  Church  who  are 
indebted,  under  God,  to  the  influence  of  Methodism,  not  only 
for  their  awakening  and  conversion,  but  for  the  essential  im- 
provement of  their  morals;  though  the  ^' accident ^  oi  immer- 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  75 

sion,  as  introduced  into  the  United  States  by  old  Zelce  HoUi- 
man,  in  Rhode  Island,  induced  them  to  go  in  search  of  ''  a 
more  excellent  way" — the  route  by  water !  This  ends  my 
''chapter  of  accidents/'  at  least  for  the  present. 

I  shall  now  proceed  to  speak  of  the  providential  origin  of 
all  the  peculiar  institutions  of  Methodism,  and  indeed  of  her 
whole  ecclesiastical  superstructure.  Boldly  as  the  opposite 
has  been  asserted,  and  often  as  that  assertion  has  been  reite- 
rated, I  hesitate  not  to  say  that  the  Church  does  not  exist,  in 
the  institutions  and  government  of  which  there  is  to  be  found 
less  of  human  contrivance  and  \corldly  policy^  than  in  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  It  is  so  far  from  being  true 
that  we  are  indebted  to  any  previous  calculation  and  manage- 
ment of  Mr.  Wesley,  such  as  Mr.  Graves  styles  -'human 
invention,''  for  our  excellent  and  scriptural  institutions,  that 
he  never  for  one  moment  contemplated  the  organization  of  a 
separate  Church,  or  even  the  formation  of  societies,  as  shown 
in  the  opening  of  this  chapter.  Mr.  Wesley  set  out  influenced 
by  the  single  and  engrossing  purpose  of  doing  good.  And  so 
ardent  was  his  zeal,  that  neither  a  parish  nor  a  realm  could 
set  limits  to  it :  the  world  was  his  field  of  labor.  And 
while  he  was  steadily  pursuing  his  toilsome  way,  a  providence, 
evidently  to  himself  as  extraordinary  as  unlooked  for,  gave 
birth,  in  regular  succession,  to  that  variety  of  most  excellent 
institutions  by  which  Methodism  has  been  always  so  greatly 
distinguished :  to  the  organization  of  societies,  lay  preachers, 
a  regular  itinerancy,  class-meetings,  band-meetings,  love- 
feasts,  watch-nights,  etc. ;  until  he,  no  less  than  others,  was 
astonished  to  behold  a  system  unfolding  itself,  which,  for  cor- 
rectness of  symmetry  and  beauty  of  proportion,  was  unequalled 
by  any  thing  that  had  preceded  it.  Nor  was  it,  as  already 
stated,  the  result  of  previous  theoretical  speculations,  or  of 
conversational  deliberations.  Each  arrangement  grew  up  out 
of  the  necessities  of  the  case,  and  was  adopted  from  a  prac- 


76  THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

tical  demonstration  of  its  utility;  and  the  providence  by  which 
many  of  them  were  introduced,  had  even  the  prejudices  of 
Mr.  Wesley  himself  to  overcome  in  their  establishment.  Even 
our  '-'Episcopacy"  had  the  weighty  argument  of  necessity/  to 
recommend  it,  and  was  adopted  as  the  best  alternative — the 
wisest  expedient — that  in  an  urgent  and  important  case  could 
be  thought  of.  Nor  did  Mr.  Wesley  claim  any  other  merit  in 
relation  to  any  of  the  institutions  of  Methodism,  than  that 
of  rightly  interpreting  the  indications,  and  embracing  and 
following  up  the  openings,  of  the  sjjecial  j^rovideiice  by  which 
the  whole  business  was  evidently  superintended. 

Not  a  great  many  years  after  the  separate  organization  in 
America  took  place,  a  third  branch  of  the  same  family  was 
organized  in  Canada.  The  local  circumstances  of  the  three 
branches  of  the  Wesleyan  family  rendered  it  necessary  for 
each  to  control  its  own  concerns,  for  the  furtherance  of  the 
general  work  ;  but  this  never  implied  any  difference  in  matters 
of  faith  and  doctrine — only  in  government  and  internal  regu- 
lations. When  the  American  Episcopal  organization  took 
place,  in  1784,  Mr.  Wesley  endorsed  it,  and  said  of  the 
societies  :  "  They  are  now  at  full  liberty  simply  to  follow  the 
Scriptures  and  the  primitive  Church ;  and  we  judge  it  best 
that  they  should  stand  fast  in  the  liberty  wherewith  God  has 
so  strangely  set  them  free.'^* 

The  intelligent  reader  will  perceive  that  it  is  not  at  all 
necessary  for  me  to  examine  the  ichole  of  the  regulations 
which  Mr.  Wesley  framed  and  recommended  to  the  Methodist 
societies  in  America,  but  to  notice  the  prominent  feature 
assailed  by  this  man  Graves,  to  wit,  the  episcopal  office.  It 
is,  in  effect,  stoutly  denied  by  Graves  that  Mr.  Wesley  ever 
established  that  office  in  the  Methodist  Church  in  America; 
and  he  asserts,  in  so  many  words,  that  our  episcopal  form  of 

*  London  edition  of  Moore's  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.  p.  327. 


THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED.        77 

government  is  a  surreptitious  addition  to  the  rules  and  regu- 
lations of  Mr.  Wesley.  The  facts  connected  with  what  is 
called  Methodist  Episcopacy  I  will  set  forth  in  the  words  of 
English  Wesleyan  writers  themselves,  whose  testimony  no 
sane  man  will  call  in  question.  The  Kev.  Mr.  Drew,  editor 
of  the  Imperial  Magazine,  states  the  whole  case  thus : 

Mr.  Wesley  was  now  far  advanced  in  years,  and  having  made  provi- 
sion for  the  government  of  the  societies  in  England  after  his  decease, 
he  thought  this  a  providential  call  for  something  of  a  similar  nature 
to  be  done  for  America.  Having  therefore  weighed  with  much  deli- 
beration the  various  circumstances  in  which  his  transatlantic  followers 
were  placed,  he  was  perfectly  satisfied  that  the  form  of  government 
which  he  had  provided  for  England  was  by  no  means  adapted  for 
America.  And,  finally,  it  was  obvious  to  him  that  no  form  of  govern- 
ment could  be  acceptable  unless  it  included  a  satisfactory  authority, 
vested  in  the  preachers,  to  administer  baptism  and  the  Lord's  supper. 
And  nothing  of  this  kind  could  possibly  be  permanent  unless  some 
general  superintendent  should  be  appointed:  in  the  first  instance  from 
hence  to  transmit  that  authority  to  posterity,  by  what  name  soever 
he  might  be  distinguished. 

To  accomplish  these  purposes,  after  revolving  all  the  possible  forms 
of  Church  government  in  his  mind,  he  could  find  none  so  well  adapted 
to  the  exigencies  of  their  condition  as  that  which  is  episcopal.  On 
this,  therefore,  he  finally  fixed  his  eye;  and  proceeded  to  take  mea- 
sures for  executing  his  resolution.  This  resolution  was,  however,  not 
the  result  of  a  momentary  impulse.  More  than  a  year  had  elapsed 
since  he  had  begun  to  revolve  it  in  his  mind;  during  which  time  he 
had  communicated  his  thoughts  to  several  persons.  But  how  formi- 
dable soever  the  objections  were  which  any  one  could  raise,  he  found 
none  equal  in  magnitude  to  the  evil  that  his  plan  was  designed  to 
remedy ;  and  he  could  learn  from  none  a  better  form  than  that  which 
he  was  about  to  adopt. 

The  zeal,  the  activity,  and  the  piety  which  Dr.  Coke  had  for  several 
years  manifested,  both  in  England  and  Ireland,  in  conjunction  with 
his  being  a  regularly  ordained  minister  of  the  Church  of  England,  all 
combined  to  point  him  out  to  Mr.  Wesley  as  the  most  suitable  person 
in  the  connection  to  engage  in  this  arduous  work,  and  to  assume  that 
character  with  which  he  was  about  to  invest  him.  Accordingly,  in 
the  month  of  February,  1784,  he  called  Dr.  Coke  into  his  private 
chamber,  and,  after  some  preparatory  observations,  introduced  the 
important  subject  to  him  in  nearly  the  following  manner: 

"That  as  tlie  revolution  in  America  had  separated  the  United  States 
from  the  mother  country  for  ever,  and  the  Episcopal  Establishment 
was  utterly  abolished,  the  societies  had  been  represented  to  him  as  in 
a  most  deplorable  condition.  That  an  appeal  had  also  been  made  to 
him  through  Mr.  Asbury,.in  which  he  was  requested  to  provide  for 


78        THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

them  some  mode  of  Church  government  suited  to  their  exigencies; 
and  that,  having  long  and  seriously  revolved  the  puhjcct  in  his 
thoughts,  he  intended  to  adopt  the  plan  which  he  was  now  about  to 
unfold.  That  as  he  had  invariably  endeavored,  in  every  step  he  had 
taken,  to  keep  as  closely  to  the  Bible  as  possible,  so  on  the  present 
occasion  he  hoped  he  was  not  about  to  deviate  from  it.  That,  keep- 
ing his  eye  upon  the  conduct  of  the  primitive  Churches  in  the  ages 
of  unadulterated  Christianity,  he  had  much  admired  the  mode  of 
ordaining  bishops  which  the  Church  of  Alexandria  had  practiced. 
That,  to  preserve  its  purity,  that  Church  would  never  sufRr  the 
interference  of  a  foreign  bishop  in  any  of  their  ordinations;  but  that 
the  presbyters  of  that  venerable  apostolic  Church,  on  the  death  of  a 
bishop,  exercised  the  right  of  ordaining  another  from  their  own  body, 
by  the  laying  on  of  their  own  hands;  and  that  this  practice  continued 
among  them  for  two  hundred  years,  till  the  days  of  Dionysius.  And, 
finally,  that  being  himself  a  presbyter,  lie  wished  Dr.  Coke  to  accept 
ordination  from  his  hands,  and  to  proceed  in  that  character  to  the 
continent  of  America,  to  superintend  the  societies  in  the  United 
States." 

Dr.  Coke  was  at  first  startled  at  a  measure  so  unprecedented  in 
modern  days;  and  he  expressed  some  doubts  as  to  the  validity  of  Mr. 
Wesley's  authority  to  constitute  so  important  an  appointment.  But 
the  arguments  of  Lord  King,  which  had  proselyted  Mr.  Wesley,  were 
recommended  to  his  attention ;  and  time  was  allowed  him  to  delibe- 
rate on  the  result.  Two  months,  however,  had  scarcely  elapsed,  before 
he  wrote  to  Mr.  Wesley,  informing  him  that  his  objections  were 
silenced,  and  that  he  was  ready  to  cooperate  with  him  in  any  way 
that  was  calculated  to  promote  the  glory  of  God  and  the  good  of 
souls. 

At  the  ensuing  Conference,  which  was  held  in  Leeds,  1784,  Mr. 
Wesley  stated  his  intention  to  the  preachers  present;  and  from  that 
period  he  considered  the  appointment  as  actually  made,  although  the 
ratification  did  not  take  place  until  a  few  days  afterward.  At  this 
Conference  Mr.  Whatcoat  and  Mr.  Vasey  oflfered  their  services  to 
accompany  Dr.  Coke  in  the  character  of  missionaries;  and  being 
accepted,  they  became  his  companions  in  his  first  voyage  to  America. 

When  the  Conference  in  Leeds  in  1784  ended,  Mr.  Wesley  repaired 
to  Bristol,  and  Dr.  Coke  to  London,  to  make  arrangements  for  his 
departure.  He  had  not,  however,  been  long  in  London  before  he 
received  a  letter  from  Mr.  Wesley,  requesting  him  to  repair  immedi- 
ately to  Bristol,  to  receive  fuller  powers ;  and  to  bring  with  him  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Creighton,  a  regularly  ordained  minister,  Avho  had  long 
officiated  in  Mr.  Wesley's  chapels  in  London,  and  assisted  him  in 
various  branches  of  his  ministerial  duties.  "The  Doctor  and  Mr. 
Creighton  accordingly  met  him  in  Bristol,  when,  with  their  assistance, 
he  ordained  Mr.  Richard  Whatcoat  and  Mr.  Thomas  Vasey  presbyters 
for  America;  and,  being  peculiarly  attached  to  every  rite  of  the  Church 
of  England,  did  afterward  ordain  Dr.  Coke  a  superintendent,  giving 
him  letters  of  ordination  under  his  hand  and  seal."     Of  these  letters 


THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED.  79 

of  ordination  the  followiug  is  a  faithful  copy,  carefully  transcribed 
from  the  original  in  Mr.  Wesley's  own  handwriting,  preserved  among 
the  papers  of  the  late  Dr.  Coke: 

"To  all  to  whom  these  presents  shall  come,  John  Wesley,  late 
Fellow  of  Lincoln  College  in  Oxford,  Presbyter  of  the  Church  of 
England,  sendeth  greeting, 

"Whereas,  many  of  the  people  in  the  southern  provinces  of  North 
America,  who  desire  to  continue  under  my  care,  and  still  adhere  to 
the  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  Church  of  England,  are  greatly 
distressed  for  want  of  ministers  to  administer  the  sacraments  of 
baptism  and  the  Lord's  supper,  according  to  the  usage  of  the  same 
Church;  and  whereas,  there  does  not  appear  to  be  any  other  way  of 
supplying  them  with  ministers — 

"Know  all  men  tliat  I,  John  Wesley,  think  myself  to  be  providen- 
tially called  at  this  time  to  set  apart  some  persons  for  the  work  of  the 
ministry  in  America.  And  therefore,  under  the  protection  of  Almighty 
God,  and  with  a  single  eye  to  his  glory,  I  have  this  day  set  apart  as  a 
Superintendent,  by  the  imposition  of  my  hands  and  prayer,  (being 
assisted  by  other  ordained  ministers,)  Thomas  Coke,  Doctor  of  Civil 
Law,  a  Presbyter  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  a  man  whom  I 
judge  to  be  well  qualified  for  that  great  work.  And  I  do  hereby 
recommend  him  to  all  whom  it  may  concern,  as  a  fit  person  to  preside 
over  the  flock  of  Christ.  In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set 
my  hand  and  seal,  this  second  day  of  September,  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  one  thousand  seven  hundred  and  eighty-four. 

"John  Wesley." 


Thus  far  Mr.  Drew  has  gone.  On  the  foregoing  I  beg 
leave  to  offer  the  following  remarks,  and  ask  the  candid 
reader  to  consider  them  : 

1.  It  clearly  appears  that  the  ordination  which  Mr.  Wesley 
requested  Dr.  Coke  to  accept  at  his  hands,  and  which  he  did 
accept,  was  the  ordination  of  a  hishop,  and  was  the  same 
with  that  which  was  performed  by  the  presbyters  of  the 
Church  of  Alexandria  for  more  than  two  hundred  years. 

2.  This  same  ordination  Mr.  Wesley  calls  the  "orc?amzn^ 
of  hisJiops;"  and  although  he  chose  to  distinguish  those 
whom  he  set  apart  by  the  imposition  of  hands,  being  assisted 
by  other  presbyters,  by  the  title  of  superintendents  for  the 
government  of  the  societies  in  America,  he  considered  them 
ofl&cers  of  the  Church  precisely  similar  to  those  whom  he  calls 
bishops  in  the  Church  of  Alexandria! 


80  THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

3.  Dr.  Coke  was  already  a  regularly  ordained  presbyter  or 
elder,  which  is  substantially  the  same,  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land :  it  would,  therefore,  have  been  nothing  but  solemn 
mockery  for  Mr.  Wesley  to  have  ordained  the  Doctor  a  pres- 
byter a  second  time,  had  he  not  intended  to  set  apart  Dr. 
Coke  to  an  office  of  a  higher  grade,  or,  to  say  the  least  of  it, 
one  altogether  distinct  from  an  ordinary  presbyter  or  elder. 
Besides,  Dr.  Coke  believing  his  ordination  as  a  presbyter  of 
the  Church  of  England  to  be  scriptural  and  valid,  he  would 
not  have  submitted  to  a  second  ordination  at  the  hands  of  any 
man,  no,  not  even  the  Lord  Bishop  of  London. 

4.  It  is  as  clear  as  a  noonday's  sun  that  the  office  with 
which  Mr.  Wesley  invested  Dr.  Coke  was  quite  different  from 
that  to  which  he  appointed  Messrs.  Whatcoat  and  Vasey;  and 
these  he  calls  at  different  times  "presbyters,"  or  "elders." 
Dr.  Coke's  office,  then,  was  the  episcopal  office,  and  he  him- 
self was  a  bishop  ever  after  this  last  ordination,  though  Mr. 
Wesley  styled  him  a  General  Sup>erintendent  of  the  societies 
in  America. 

5.  Mr.  Wesley,  as  I  have  more  than  once  asserted,  was 
peculiarly  attached  to  every  rite  of  the  Church  of  England, 
and  wished  to  conform  the  government  of  the  societies  in 
America,  as  nearly  as  possible,  to  the  rites  of  that  Church, 
without  entangling  them  with  the  national  establishment, 
and  hence  he  called  Dr.  Coke  superintendent.  With  a  view 
to  this  he  ordained  him.  And  if  Dr.  Coke's  office  were 
not  designed  to  answer  to  the  episcopal  office  in  the  Church 
of  England,  Mr.  Wesley  was  not  able  to  employ  words 
expressive  of  his  meaning! 

6.  Mr.  Wesley  felt  perfectly  satisfied,  from  the  practice  of 
the  Church  of  Alexandria,  and  that  of  the  apostolic  Churches, 
that  the  right  of  ordination  was  possessed  by  the  presbyters, 
or  elders;  that  they  had  a  right  jointly  to  invest  any  one  of 
their  own  number  with  the  episcopal  office ;  that  the  person 


THE    GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.      ..  81 

SO  ordained  was  not  advanced  to  a  degree  of  spiritual  autho- 
rity which  he  did  not  possess  before,  but  was  only  set  apart 
to  a  more  extensive  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  for  the  general 
good  of  the  Church,  by  the  solemn  ordinance  of  the  imposi- 
tion of  hands  and  prayer. 

7.  All  these  circumstances  taken  together  will,  I  feel 
confident,  satisfy  the  candid  and  intelligent  reader — and  I 
address  myself  to  no  other  class  of  persons — that  the  episcopal 
office  in  the  Methodist  Church  is  of  Mr.  Wesley^s  own  ap- 
pointment, and  that  all  statements  to  the  contrary  are  founded 
in  gross  error  or  a  love  of  lying ! 

8.  Mr.  Wesley  abridged  the  form  of  Common  Prayer  for 
the  use  of  the  ''  Methodists  in  North  America,^'  had  the  work 
printed  in  1784,  by  his  own  pres§^in  London,  and  sent  it  over 
by  Dr.  Coke.  In  this  work  .he  also  gives  the  forms  for 
ordaining  ministers,  which  Dr.  Coke,  Mr.  Asbury,  and  others 
used.  The  yirs<  •  ministerial  ofl&ce  named  is  entitled,  ''The 
form  and  manner  of  making  of  Deacons.''  The  second  oflSce 
is,  ''The  form  and  manner  of  ordaining  of  Elders.' '  The 
third  is,  "The  form  and  manner  of  ordaining  a  Superin- 
tendent.'' 

9.  To  these  facts  and  arguments  I  will  now  add  the  testi- 
mony of  the  English  Wesleyan  Magazine  for  1825,  page  183  : 

Mr.  "Wesley,  in  point  of  fact,  did  ordain  bishops  for  the  American 
societies,  though  he  intended  them  to  be  called  superintendents. 
Whether  the  name  (bishop)  had  or  had  not  the  sanction  of  Mr.  Wes- 
ley, is  now  of  the  least  possible  consequence,  as  the  Episcopacy  itself 
was  of  his  oion  creating.  Mr.  Wesley's  intimate  friend  and  biographer 
says:  " Mr.  Wesley  gave  to  the  episcopoi  (bishops)  yflioxn.  he  ordained 
the  modest  but  highly  expressive  title  of  superintendents,  and  desired 
that  no  other  might  be  used.  That  God  has  greatly  blessed  this  boon 
[Episcopacy)  to  the  American  societies,  is  evident  by  their  great  and 
continued  increase.  The  numbers  in  the  various  societies,  -when  Dr. 
Coke  went  over,  were  ^howi  fifteen  thousand.  Six  years  after  they  had 
increased  to  nearly  seventy  thousand;  and  in  the  year  1820  they  were 
two  hundred  and  eighty  thousand P^  They  are  now  nearly  four  hundred 
thousand. 

"About  this  period,"  (1784,)  says  the  Rev.  Jonathan  Crowther,  in 
4* 


82        THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

his  New  and  Complete  Portraiture  of  Methodism,  "Mr.  Wesley,  assisted 
b}'  other  mitiisters,  set  apart  Dr.  Coke,  and  by  him  Mr.  Asbury,  to  be 
bishops  or  superintendents  of  wliat  was  hencrforth  termed  the  Method- 
ist hJpii^copal  Church  in  America:  as  also  Thomas  Vasey  and  Richard 
Whatcoat  to  act  as  elders  among  them;"  and  in  the  second  English 
edition  of  this  work,  p.  413,  Mr.  CroAvther  observes:  "Dr.  Coke  was 
ordained  bishop,  and  brothers  Whatcoat  and  \asey  presbyters." 

10.  If  the  setting  apart  of  snjjcrintendents,  as  such,  were 
not  intended  by  Mr.  Wesley  to  estabh'sh  the  ordination  of 
such  an  order  of  ministers  among  us,  neither  was  the  setting 
apart  of  deacons  and  elders  intended  to  establish  those  orders. 
Similar  forms  and  solemnities  were  recommended  for  the 
former  as  for  the  latter.  Any  sensible  man  who  will  examine 
this  Prayer  Book  will  say,  either  that  Mr.  Wesley  intended 
to  establish  the  ordination  of  an  order  of  superintendents,  to 
act  as  bishops  in  fact,  though  with  the  title  of  ^'superintend- 
ents,^^ or  that  he  did  not  intend  to  establish  the  ordination 
of  any  orders  of  ministers  at  all;  and  that  Bishops  Coke  and 
Asbury,  and  their  successors  in  the  Episcopacy,  utterly  mis- 
took the  whole  matter ! 

11.  The  late  lamented  Bishop  Emory  records  the  follow- 
ing, of  his  own  knowledge  : 

At  the  British  Conference  held  in  Liverpool,  in  1820,  we  heard  the 
profoundly  learned  Dr.  Adam  Clarke,  and  Rev.  Richard  Watson, 
that  most  amiable  and  eloquent  divine,  express  themselves  publicly 
before  the  Conference,  in  relation  to  our  Episcopacy,  as  a  true,  actual, 
scriptural  Episcopacy,  of  the  most  genuine  and  apostolic  kind. 

Finally,  other  authorities  might  be  added  to  the  same  effect, 
and  I  have  them  at  command;  but  it  is  presumed  that  the 
above  are  quite  sufficient  to  satisfy  all  candid  minds  that  Mr. 
Wesley  did  ordain  Dr.  Coke  bishop.  And  if  Elder  Graves 
had  had  any  regard  for  truth,  or  his  own  moral  character,  he 
would  never  have  published  that  Mr.  Wesley  did  not  estab- 
lish Episcopacy  among  the  Methodists  in  America. 

As  to  the  terms  bishop  and  superintendent,  the  one  is 
derived  from  the  Greek,  the  other  from  the  Latin  tongue ; 


THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED.        83 

but  they  signify  precisely  the  same  thing  in  the  original,  as 
well  as  in  the  English.  I  need  not  extend  this  chapter  to 
adduce  authorities  on  this  point.  If  the  reader  si  ould  wish 
to  pursue  it  further,  he  is  referred  to  any  commou  English 
lexicon,  especially  Johnson's  Quarto  Dictionary,  where  he 
will  find  the  meaning  of  these  words  illustrated  by  several 
examples;  to  Bishop  Emory's  '^Defence  of  our  Fathers,''  page 
66;  to  Parkhurst's  Greek  Lexicon,  on  the  word  episcopos; 
to  Dr.  Adam  Clarke's  Commentary  ou  1  Tim.  chap.  iii.  v.  2; 
and  to  the  Critica  Biblica,  vol.  iii.  page  209,  London  edition. 
Bishop  Emory  says:  ''When  the  title  bishop  was  introduced 
into  the  minutes,  in  1788,  it  was  sanctioned  by  the  Conference, 
as  meaning  precisely  the  same  thing  with  superintendent." 
See  Emory's  Defence,  page  49. 

Mr.  Wesley  disapproved  of  the  term  hishoj),  not  because 
he  was  opposed  to  the  office — for  he  considered  it,  to  use  his 
own  words,  ''  well  agreeing  with  the  writings  and  practice  of 
the  apostles,"  and,  as  I  have  shown  in  the  preceding  pages, 
appointed  it  for  the  furtherance  of  the  work  of  Grod  in  Ame- 
rica—  not  because  such  a  title  was  inapplicable  or  unscrip- 
tural,  for  it  is  both  appropriate  and  scriptural,  and  it  is  used 
by  Presbyterians  at  the  present  day.  In  Dr.  Samuel  Miller's 
Letters,  etc.,  page  9,  this  paragraph  will  be  found  : — "  In  the 
form  of  government  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  the  pastors 
of  the  churches  are  expressly  styled  bishops,  and  this  title  is 
recommended  to  be  retained,  as  both  scriptural  and  appro- 
priate.''  See  also  the  Presbyterian  ''Digest-Book  of  Dis- 
cipline," on  the  regulations  to  be  observed  in  the  "translation 
of  a  bishop  from  one  church  to  another." 

It  is  not  true,  as  stated  by  Mr.  G-raves,  that  the  Methodists 
teach  that  "bishops  are  a  third  order,  possessing  a  divine 
right  to  overrule  all."  Methodists  acknowledge  tico  orders 
only  of  ministers,  deacons  and  elders,  and  a  superior  minister 
denominated  a  bishop,  possessing  a  delegated  jurisdiction, 


84  THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

chiefly  of  an  executive  character.  When  the  Methodists  or- 
dain a  bishop,  they  only  intend  to  confer  upon  him  fuller 
powers,  fo .  the  government  of  the  Church,  than  they  do  upon 
those  whcni  they  denominate  deacons  and  elders.  And  if  the 
word  order  is  applied  to  bishops  as  above  defined,  they  are 
willing  to  have  it  understood  that  they  acknowledge  three 
orders  of  ministers — deacons,  elders,  and  bishops.  For  in  the 
use  of  the  term  order,  the  Methodists  mean  nothing  more,  in 
this  connection,  than  that  bishops  are  invested  by  consent  of 
the  eldership  with  a  power  to  preside  over  the  flock  of  Christ, 
and  to  discharge  other  duties  not  so  convenient  for  the  elders 
or  presbyters  to  discharge.  They  believe,  moreover,  that  the 
primitive  Church,  in  the  age  immediately  succeeding  the 
apostles,  recognized  an  order  of  ministers  denominated  evan- 
gelists;  that  these  were  really  itinerating  superintendents, 
having  a  general  oversight  of  the  whole  Church ;  and  that 
these  diff'ered  but  little,  if  any,  from  the  bishops  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States ! 

The  Irenicum  of  Dr.  Stillingfleet,  subsequently  Bishop 
Stillingfieet,  will  be  admitted  to  rank  and  distinction  in 
America  equal  in  celebrity,  as  an  ecclesiastical  work,  to  the 
''Iron  Wheer'  of  a  second-rate  Baptist  preacher,  both  of 
limited  acquirements  and  doubtful  veracity.  The  object  of 
Stillingfleet  in  this  work,  as  he  avows,  was  to  discuss  and 
examine  the  divine  right  of  the  diff"erent  forms  of  Church 
government — contrasting  them  with  the  positive  laws  of  God, 
the  practice  of  the  apostles  and  the  primitive  Church,  citing 
all  the  best  authorities  then  extant.  For  ability,  excelleoce 
of  temper,  and  sound  scriptural  views,  his  work  certainly  has 
uo  equal  in  Protestant  Christendom. 

I  assert  (says  Dr.  Stillingfleet)  any  particular  form  of  government 
agreed  on  by  the  governors  of  the  Church,  consonant  to  the  general 
rules  of  Scripture,  to  be  by  divine  right ;  that  is,  God,  by  his  own 
laws,  hath  given  men  a  power  and  liberty  to  determine  the  particular 


THE   GREAT   IROX   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  85 

form  of  Church  government  among  them.  And  hence  it  may  appear 
that  though  one  form  of  government  be  agreeable  to  the  word,  it 
doth  not  follow  that  another  is  not,  or  because  one  is  lawful,  another 
is  unlawful;  but  one  form  may  be  more  agreeable  to  some  parts, 
places,  people,  and  times,  than  others  are.  In  which  case,  that  form 
of  government  is  to  be  settled  which  is  most  agreeable  to  the  present 
state  of  a  place,  and  is  most  advantageously  conducible  to  the  pro- 
moting the  ends  of  Church  government  in  that  place  or  nation. — 
Irenicum,  pp.  9,  10.    2d  edit.    Lond.,  1662. 

Matters  of  fact,  and  mere  apostolical  practice,  may,  I  freely  grant, 
receive  much  light  from  the  records  of  succeeding  ages;  but  they  can 
never  give  a  man's  understanding  sufficient  ground  to  infer  any  divine 
law  arising  from  those  facts  attested  to  by  the  practice  or  records  of 
succeeding  ages. — Ibid,  p.  151. 

In  relation  to  arguments  drawn  from  the  testimony  of  antiquity, 
before  their  authority  can  be  admitted  in  this  controversy.  Dr.  Stil- 
lingfleet  affirms  :  These  things  must  be  manifested, — that  such  things 
were  imquestionably  the  practice  of  those  ages  and  persons ;  that  their 
practice  icas  the  same  as  the  apostles;  that  tchat  they  did  was  not  from 
any  prudential  motives,  but  by  virtue  of  a  law  ivhich  did  bind  them  to 
that  practice.  Which  things  are  easily  passed  over  by  the  most  eager 
disputers  of  the  controversy  about  Church  government ;  but  how  ne- 
cessary they  are  to  be  proved,  before  any  form  of  government  be 
asserted — so  necessary,  that  without  it  there  can  be  no  true  Church — 
any  weak  understanding  may  discern. — Ibid,  p.  1.52. 

The  reason  of  apostolical  practice  binds  still,  though  not  the  indivi- 
dual action :  that  as  they  regulated  churches  for  the  best  conveniency 
of  governing  them,  so  should  the  pastors  of  churches  now. — Ibid,  p.  181. 

Any  one  particular  form  of  government  in  the  Church  is  neither 
expressed  in  any  direct  terms  by  Christ,  nor  can  be  deduced  by  just 
consequence  ;  therefore,  no  such  form  of  government  is  instituted  by 
Christ.— Ibid,  p.  182. 

The  extending  of  any  ministerial  power  is  not  the  appointing  of  any 
new  office;  because  every  minister  of  the  gospel  hath  a  relation  in 
actu  primo  [primarily]  to  the  whole  Church  of  God — the  restraint  and 
enlargement  of  which  power  is  subject  to  positive  determinations  of 
prudence  and  conveniency ;  and  therefore  if  the  Church  see  it  fit  for 
some  men  to  have  this  power  enlarged,  for  better  government  in 
some,  and  restrained  in  others,  that  enlargement  is  the  appointing  no 
new  office,  but  the  making  use  of  a  power  already  enjoyed  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Church  of  God.  This  being  a  foundation  tending  so 
fully  to  clear  the  lawfulness  of  that  government  in  the  Church,  which 
implies  a  superiority  and  subordination  of  the  officers  of  the  Church 
to  one  another,  and  the  Church,  using  her  prudence  in  ordering  the 
bounds  of  her  officers,  I  shall  do  these  two  things :  First,  Show  that 
the  power  of  every  minister  of  the  gospel  doth  primarily  and  habit- 
ually respect  the  Church  in  common  ;  secondly,  That  the  Church  may, 
in  a  peculiar  manner,  single  out  some  of  its  officers  for  the  due  ad' 
ministration  of  ecclesiastical  power. — Ibid,  p.  195. 


86        THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

The  oflBccrs  of  the  Church  may,  in  a  peculiar  manner,  attribute  a 
larger  and  more  extensive  power  to  some  particular  persons,  for  the 
more  convenient  exercise  of  their  common  power — grant  to  some  the 
executive  part  of  that  power,  which  is  originally  and  fundamentally 
common  to  them  all.  For  our  better  understanding  of  this,  we  must 
consider  a  twofold  power  belonging  to  church  oflScers  —  a  power  of 
order  and  a  poiver  of  jurisdiction. — Ibid,  p.  197. 

Under  this  distinction,  he  shows  that  though  every  presbyter,  prima- 
rily and  inherently,  as  to  order,  possesses  a  capacity  for  the  highest 
ministerial  acts,  yet  some  further  authority  is  necessary  in  a  church 
constituted  [or  organized]  besides  the  power  of  order ;  and  when  this 
power,  either  by  consent  of  the  pastors  of  the  church,  or  by  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  Christian  magistrate,  or  both,  is  devolved  to  some 
particular  persons,  though  quoad  aptitudinem  [as  to  the  capacity  or 
fitness]  the  power  remain  in  every  presbyter,  yet  quoad  executionem 
[as  to  the  actual  discharge  or  execution  of  it]  it  belongs  to  those  who 
are  so  appointed.  And  therefore  Camero  determines  that  ordination 
doth  not  belong  to  the  power  of  order,  but  to  the  power  of  jurisdic- 
tion, and  therefore  is  subject  to  positive  restraints,  by  prudential  de- 
terminations. By  this  we  may  understand  how  lawful  the  exercise 
of  an  episcopal  power  may  be  in  the  Church  of  God,  supposing  an 
equality  in  all  church  officers  as  to  the  power  of  order ;  and  how  in- 
congruously they  speak  who,  supposing  an  equality  in  the  presbyters 
of  churches  at  fii-st,  do  cry  out  that  the  Chuixh  takes  upon  her  the 
office  of  Christ,  if  she  delegates  any  to  a  more  peculiar  exercise  of  the 
power  of  jurisdiction. — Ibid,  pp.  197-8. 

"When  the  apostles  were  taken  out  of  the  way,  who  kept  the  main 
power  in  their  own  hands  of  ruling  the  several  presbyteries,  or  dele- 
gated some  to  do  it,  (who  had  a  main  hand  in  planting  churches  with 
the  apostles,  and  thence  are  called  in  Scripture  sometimes  fellow- 
laborers  in  the  Lord,  and  sometimes  evangelists,  and  by  Theodoret 
apostles,  but  of  a  second  order) — after,  I  say,  these  were  deceased,  and 
the  main  power  left  in  the  presbyteries,  the  several  presbyters  enjoy- 
ing an  equal  power  among  themselves,  the  wiser  and  graver  sort  con- 
sidered the  abuses  following  the  promiscuous  use  of  this  power  of 
ordination  ;  and  withal,  having  in  their  minds  the  excellent  frame  of 
the  government  of  the  Church  under  the  apostles  and  their  deputies, 
and  for  preventing  of  future  schisms  and  divisions  among  themselves, 
they  unanimously  agreed  to  choose  one  out  of  their  number  who  was 
best  qualified  for  the  management  of  so  great  a  trust,  and  to  devolve 
the  exercise  of  the  power  of  ordination  and  jurisdiction  to  him ;  yet  so 
as  that  he  act  nothing  of  importance  without  the  consent  and  concurrence 
of  the  presbyters,  who  were  still  to  be  as  the  common  council  to  the 
bishop.  This  I  take  to  be  the  true  and  just  account  of  the  original 
of  episcopacy  in  the  primitive  Chiirch,  according  to  Jerome:  which 
model  of  government,  thus  contrived  and  framed,  sets  forth  to  us  a 
most  lively  character  of  that  great  wisdom  and  moderation  which  then 
ruled  the  heads  and  hearts  of  the  primitive  Christians,  and  which, 
when  men  have  studied  and  searched  all  other  ways,  (the  abuses  incident 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  87 

to  this  government  through  the  corruptions  of  men  and  times  being 
retrenched,)  ivill  be  found  the  most  agreeable  to  the  primitive  form,  both 
ais  asserting  the  due  interest  of  the  presbyteries,  and  aUoioing  the  due 
honor  of  episcojjacy ;  and,  by  the  great  harmony  of  both,  carrying  on 
the  affairs  of  the  Church  with  the  greatest  unity,  concord,  and 
peace.  Which  form  of  government,  I  cannot  see  how  any  possible  reason 
can  be  produced  by  cither  party  ichy  they  may  not  with  cheerfulness  em- 
brace it.— Ibid,  pp.  281-2. 

Thus  we  have  once  more  cleared  Jerome  and  the  truth  together. 
I  only  wish  that  all  that  arc  of  his  judgment  for  the  practice  of  the 
primitive  Chui'ch  were  of  his  temper  for  the  practice  of  their  own ; 
and  while  they  own  not  episcopacy  as  necessary  by  a  divine  right,  yet 
(being  duly  moderated,  and  joined  with  presbyteries)  they  may  em- 
brace it,  as  not  only  a  lawful,  but  very  useful  constitution  in  the 
Church  of  God.  By  which  we  may  see  what  an  excellent  temper  may 
be  found  out  most  fully  consonant  to  the  primitive  Church  for  the 
management  of  ordinations  and  church  power ;  namely,  by  the  presi- 
dency OF  THE  BISHOP  AND  THE  CONCURRENCE   OF   THE   PRESBYTERY. 

Ibid,  p.  283. 

Dr.  Samuel  Miller,  a  divine  of  acknowledged  talents 
and  learning,  and  a  writer  on  whose  researches  all  parties 
may  rely,  informs  us  that  among  those  who  espouse  the  epis- 
copal side  upon  the  question  of  Church  government,  there 
are  tico  classes  who  make  themselves  prominent.  Here  is 
what  he  says  of  these  classes  : — 

The  first  consists  of  those  who  believe  that  neither  Christ  nor  his 
apostles  laid  down  any  particular  form  of  ecclesiastical  government  to 
which  the  Church  is  bound  to  adhere  in  all  ages — that  every  Church 
is  free,  consistently  with  the  Divine  will,  to  frame  her  constitution 
agreeably  to  her  own  views,  to  the  state  of  society,  and  to  the  exi- 
gencies of  particular  times.  These  prefer  the  episcopal  government, 
and  some  of  them  believe  that  it  was  the  primitive  form ;  but  they 
consider  it  as  resting  on  the  ground  of  human  expediencxj  alone,  and 
not  of  Divine  appointment.  This  is  well  known  to  have  been  the 
opinion  of  Archbishops  Cranmer,  Grindal,  and  Whitgift ;  of  Bishop 
Leighton,  of  Bishop  Jewel,  of  Dr.  Whitaker,  of  Bishop  Keynolds,  of 
Archbishop  Tillotson,  of  Bishop  Burnet,  of  Bishop  Croft,  of  Dr.  Stil- 
lingfleet,  and  of  a  long  list  of  the  most  learned  and  pious  divines  of  the 
Church  of  England,  from  the  Reformation  down  to  the  present  day. 

Another  class  of  Episcopalians  go  farther.  They  suppose  that  the 
government  of  the  Church  by  bishops,  as  a  superior  order  to  presby- 
ters, was  sanctioned  by  apostolic  example,  and  that  it  is  the  duty  of 
all  churches  to  imitate  this  example.  But  while  they  consider  Epis- 
copacy as  necessary  to  the  perfection  of  the  Church,  they  grant  that 


00  THE   OREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

it  is  by  no  means  necessary  to  her  ^xiatcncc ;  and  accordingly,  without 
hesitation,  acknowledge  as  true  Churches  of  Christ  many  in  which  the 
Episcopal  doctrine  is  rejected,  and  Presbyterian  principles  made  the 
basis  of  ecclesiastical  government.  The  advocates  of  this  opinion, 
also,  have  been  numerous  and  respectable,  both  among  the  -clerical 
and  lay  members  of  the  Episcopal  churches  in  England  and  the 
United  States.  In  this  list  appear  the  venerable  names  of  Bishop 
HaU,  Bishop  Downham,  Bishop  Bancroft,  Bishop  Andrews,  Archbishop 
Usher,  Bishop  Forbes,  the  learned  Chillingworth,  Archbishop  Wake, 
Bishop  lloadly,  and  many  more. 

A  third  class-^not  of  Episcopalian,  but  of  sectarian  bigots, 
commonly  called  Baptists — go  beyond  either  of  the  former. 
While  they  grant  that  God  has  left  men  at  liberty  to  modify 
every  other  kind  of  government  according  to  circumstances, 
they  contend  that  one  form  of  government  for  the  Church  is 
unalterably  jBxed  by  Divine  appointment ;  that  this  form  is 
the  loose  congregational  form  adopted  hy  the  Baptists  ;  that 
it  is  absolutely  essential  to  the  existence  of  a  Church  ]  that, 
of  course,  wherever  it  is  wanting,  as  among  Methodists,  Pres- 
byterians, Episcopalians,  Lutherans,  and  others,  there  is  no 
Church,  no  regular  ministry,  (baptism  by  immersion  included  !) 
no  valid  ordinances;  and  that  all  who  are  united  with  reli- 
gious societies  not  conforming  to  their  views  of  baptism,  close 
communion,  and  a  sort  of  Indian  council-ground  form  of 
government,  are  ^^  aliens  from  the  commonwealth  of  Israel, 
and  strangers  to  the  covenant  of  promise" — strangers  to 
Christ,  ^^  out  of  the  appointed  way  to  heaven,''  and  have  no 
hope  but  in  the  "  uncovenanted  mercies  of  God  !" 

Now,  it  is  confidently  believed  that  the  two  former  classes, 
taken  together,  embrace  at  least  nineteen  parts  out  of  twenty 
of  all  the  Episcopalians  in  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States ;  while,  so  far  as  my  observation  goes — and  I  have  had 
some  experience  in  the  world — fico-thirds  of  all  the  Baptists 
in  the  United  States  hold  the  extravagant  opi^on  I  have  as- 
signed to  them !  And  that  I  may  not  seem  to  be  making 
hold  assertions  on  this  point,  I  submit  one  single  paragraph 


TUE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED-  89 

from  the  book  of  Elder  Howell,  a  standard  work  with  the 
Baptist  Publishing  Societies  throughout  the  South.  He  says, 
on  page  275  of  this  rather  notorious  book : — 

We  are  not  Protestants,  nor  Dissenters,  Lutherans,  Calvinists,  Armi- 
uians,  nor  Reformers,  but  what  we  have  been,  in  all  ages,  the  church 

OF    OUR   LORD    JESUS    CHRIST  !  ! 

With  this,  and  similar  declarations  by  Mr.  Graves,  with 
which  his  book  abounds,  before  me,  to  contend  for  the  validity 
of  Methodist  ordinations  is  to  contend  for  our  existence  as  a 
Church  of  Christ,  and  not  for  ours  only,  but  also  for  that  of 
all  other  Churches,  except  the  Baptist  Church.  A  principle, 
then,  which  involves  such  important  conclusions,  should  be 
supported  by  the  most  indubitable  evidence — by  evidence  far 
more  indubitable  than  the  Baptists  are  able  to  bring  forward. 
And  whether  the  sentiments  of  the  Baptists  on  this  subject, 
as  expressed  by  Graves  and  Howell,  be  thus  supported  or  not, 
will  be  the  subject-matter  of  the  next  chapter. 


90  THE    GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 


CHAPTER    V. 


Coke  and  Asbury  not  qualified  to  found  a  Church  of  Christ — Holliman 
and  Williams  were! — Baptists  in  a  regular  line  of  succession  from 
John  the  Baptist — The  Church  in  ^Mesopotamia — Benedict's  History 
of  the  Baptists — Ilolliman  baptizing  Williams — Peculiarities  of 
Roger  Williams — Baptist  members  all  Christians — Rare  specimens 
of  Baptist  conversions ! 


The  great  ^^  Boinbastes  Furioso"  Graves,  of  the  "  Tennes- 
see Baptist,"  and  author  of  Forty  Letter?,  to  '^J.  Soule, 
Senior  Bishop  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South/'  informs  the 
public,  on  page  138  of  his  book,  that  ^^it  is  clear  as  noonday 
that  Methodist  Episcopacy  is  spurious;  and  the  palming  of  it 
off  upon  the  world  is  a  fraudulent  operation,  performed  by 
an  ambitious,  aspiring,  and  power-loving  clergy/' 

On  page  142  he  concludes  Letter  No.  12  with  this  remark- 
able revelation  :  "  I  close  this  letter  with  the  conviction  that 
such  men  as  Coke  and  x\sbury  were  not  qualified  to  found  a 
Church  of  Christ,  and  1  cannot  recognize  Metliodism  as 
suchl'^ 

The  reader  will  bear  in  mind  that  these  extracts  are  from 
the  pen  of  a  minister  belonging  to  a  denomination  that  admits 
thi'ce  distinct  orders  of  church  officers:  messengers  or  minis- 
ters, eJders,  and  deacons !  And  before  I  close  this  chapter,  I 
will  endeavor  to  show  that  Coke  and  Asbury  were  as  well 
qualified  to  found  a  Church  of  Christ  as  old  Zeke  Holliman 
and  Mr.  Williams  were,  of  the  State  of  Rhode  Island,  the 
founders  of  the  Baptist  Church  in  America !  I  will  therefore 
proceed  to  examine  the  divine  right  of  the  Baptist  ministry, 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  91 

and  tlie  validity  of  their  claim  to  a  regular  succession  from 
John  the  Baptist.  It  is  said  by  many  of  the  Baptist  minis- 
ters that  their  Church  and  its  customs  have  regularly  de- 
scended from  John  the  Baptist,  Christ,  and  his  apostles;  and 
as  these  bold  assertions  and  extravagant  pretensions  have  had 
great  influence  over  the  minds  of  those  who  have  read  but 
little  history,  and  have  been  chiefly  confined  to  the  ministry 
of  Baptists,  I  deem  it  in  point  here  to  give  a  brief  sketch  of 
the  facts  as  they  are. 

As  to  the  claim,  then,  of  being  the  regular  descendants  of 
John  the  Baptist,  it  is  not  only  without  proof  to  sustain  it, 
but  it  is  directly  contrary  to  the  records  of  history.  The 
Baptists,  though  Mr.  Graves  boasts  of  their  ancient  origin, 
can  be  traced  back  but  a  few  centuries,  and  certainly  no 
nigher  to  '^John  in  Jordan*^  than  the  fifteenth  century.  The 
Baptists  constituted,  in  England,  one  of  'Hhe  three  denomi- 
nations of  Protestant  Dissenters.''  No  traces  of  a  Baptist 
church  can  be  found  in  Scotland,  excepting  a  small  one 
formed  out  of  a  part  of  Cromwell's  army,  previous  to  1765. 
Still  this  sect  claims  to  have  descended  regularly  from  the 
Old  Baptist  whose  "raiment"  was  of  "camel's  hair,"  whose 
"  meat  was  locusts  and  wild  honey,''  and  who  preached  re- 
pentance in  the  wilderness  of  Judea!  They  are  not  alone, 
however,  in  setting  up  these  arrogant  claims.  The  Church  in 
Mesopotamia,  an  extensive  province  of  Asia,  situated  between 
the  rivers  Euphrates  and  Tigris,  in  Scripture  called  Aram, 
tenaciously  claims  to  have  descended  from  John  the  Baptist; 
and  yet  this  Church  baptizes  children  at  thirty  days  old,  and 
her  mode  of  baptism  is  sprinkling.  Who  is  in  the  right — ■ 
our  American  Baptists,  or  the  Church  in  Mesopotamia  ?  I 
should  say  the  latter,  as  they  are  a  more  ancient  sect,  lived 
more  nearly  to  the  age  in  which  John  the  Baptist  figured, 
and  were  therefore  better  posted  in  reference  to  the  customs 
of   that   day.     The  Greek    name   of   Mesopotamia   signifies 


9*^  THE    GREAT    IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

''between  the  rivers:"  a  territory  extending  as  far  as  the 
bend  formed  by  the  P^uphrates  near  Cunaxa.  Mesopota- 
mia is  supposed  to  have  been  the  seat  of  the  earthly  paradise; 
and  all  geographers  agree  that  here  the  descendants  of  Noah 
settled  immediately  after  the  flood.  No  country  or  climate  on 
earth  was  ever  more  favorable  to  baptism  by  immersion  than 
this;  but  this  Church  of  Mesopotamia,  though  claiming  to 
have  descended  from  John  the  Baptist  in  a  regular  line  of 
succession,  practiced  sprinkling! 

But  this  man  Graves  asserts — and  Baptists  generally  take 
the  same  high  and  untenable  ground — that  none  are  legal 
administrators  of  the  ordinance  of  baptism,  or  expounders  of 
the  word  of  God,  but  those  who  have  been  immersed;  and, 
to  make  their  baptism  valid,  they  must  have  been  immersed 
by  an  immersionist,  who  has  himself  been  plunged!  Now 
I  wish  to  try  them  by  this  their  own  rule.  In  the  first 
settling  of  this  country,  the  Baptists  were  without  any  admin- 
istrator at  all.  For  the  truth  of  this  declaration,  I  refer  all 
interested  to  their  own  historian.  Rev.  David  Benedict. 
On  page  473,  vol.  i.,  of  Benedict's  History  of  the  Baptist 
Church,  an  account  of  the  origin  of  the  Baptist  Church  in 
the  United  States  is  given  in  the  words  and  figures  following, 
to  wit : 

We  shall  now  give  a  brief  account  of  some  of  the  Baptist  churches 
which  have  arisen  in  this  State,  (Rhode  Island,)  and  beginning  with 
the  First  Church  in  Providence.  This  Church,  which  is  the  oldest 
OF  THE  Baptist  denomination  jn  America,  according  to  Gov.  Win- 
THROP,  was  planted  in  the  year  1639. 

On  page  475,  and  in  the  same  volume,  Mr.  Benedict  gives 
an  account  of  the  formation  of  the  "First  Church" — of  the 
difl&culty  they  found  in  trying  to  organize — their  want  of  an 
administrator.  It  was  in  the  city  of  Providence,  Rhode 
Island.  I  have  been  on  the  very  spot,  and  have  a  distinct 
recollection  of  the  locality.     On  this  point  Benedict  says : 


THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  93 

To  obtain  a  suitable  administrator  was  a  matter  of  consequence :  at 
length,  the  candidates  for  communion  nominated  or  appointed  Mr. 
Ezekiel  Holliman,  a  man  of  gifts  and  piety,  to  baptize  [immerse]  Mr. 
Williams,  and  who,  in  return,  [acting  upon  the  principle  that  one  good 
turn  deserves  another!]  baptized  Mr.  Holliman  and  the  other  ten! ! ! 

Now  I  am  aware  that  some  of  tlie  Baptists  deny  that  this 
history  contains  any  such  statements.  If  such  will  bring  me 
the  first  volume  of  the  first  edition  of  this  work,  published 
by  Lincoln  &  Edmunds,  Boston,  1813,  I  will  point  out  these 
two  extracts.  I  copy  from  the  book  itself,  and  not  from  a 
newspaper.  David  Benedict  was  the  pastor  of  the  Baptist 
church  in  Pawtucket,  Rhode  Island,  where  he  certainly  had 
all  the  means  of  knowing  the  facts  in  the  cases  he  reports. 
He  completed  his  history  but  a  short  time  before  its  publica- 
tion in  Boston.  And  I  know  very  well  that  the  Baptist 
Church  in  this  country  has  all  along  recognized  it  as  a  correct 
history  of  their  sect. 

Candid  reader,  is  it  not  as  plain  as  the  nose  on  a  man's 
face,  from  their  own  history,  that  the  Baptists  should  be  the 
last  denomination  in  America  to  unchurch  others,  or  to  anni- 
hilate the  clerical  character  of  other  ministers  for  the  want 
of  validity  of  ordination?  Mr.  Graves  is  an  ordained  elder 
in  the  Baptist  Church,  in  a  regular  line  of  succession — not 
from  John  the  Baptist — but  from  old  Zehe  Holliman  and  his 
^Hrue  yoke-fellow,^'  Mr.  Williams!  And,  pray,  were  they 
better  qualified  to  found  a  Church  of  Christ  than  ''such  men 
as  Coke  and  Asbury?''  Who  authorized  Mr.  Holliman  to 
immerse  Mr.  Williams  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Grhost?  And  whence  did  Mr.  Williams  derive  autho- 
rity to  immerse  ^^the  other  ten?"  True,  "the  other  ten" 
were  immersed  by  a  man  who  had  himself  been  immersed, 
but  he  was  immersed  by  old  Zeke,  who  had  never  been 
immersed  until  this  same  man  Williams  immersed  him,  so  as 
to  make  a  starting-point  for  this  ''first  church"  in  America, 
and  in  the  regular  line  of  succession  1     This  affair  constituted 


94  THE    GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

"Williams  and  Ilollimau  the  regular  successors  of  the  old 
preacher  of  repentance,  '^ whose  meat  was  locusts  and  wild 
honey,"  though  lie  flourished  sixteen  hundred  years  before 
them  ! 

The  State  of  Rhode  Island  was  first  settled  in  163G,  only 
three  years  before  the  founding  of  this  ''first  church"  by 
llolliman,  Williams,  and  ''the  other  ten."  Roger  Williams 
and  his  followers  fled  from  the  persecutions  of  Massachusetts, 
and  settled  at  Providence;  and  Williams  gave  the  place  this 
name,  as  being  expressive  of  their  escape  and  deliverance. 
From  Providence,  since  1636,  two  hundred  and  twenty  years 
ago,  the  Baptists,  according  to  their  own  showing,  have  been 
extending  their  operations,  until  they  have  spread  over  the 
South  and  West,  and  have  taken  that  stand  they  now  occupy. 
They  have  descended,  then,  in  a  regular  line  in  the  United 
States,  not  from  John  the  Baptist,  or  the  apostles,  or  Christ, 
but  from  one  Ezekiel  llolliman — a  clever  old  man,  I  have  no 
doubt,  and,  if  the  reader  please,  even  a  pious  man,  but  an 
old  gentleman  who  had  no  sort  of  authority  to  baptize  in  the 
name  of  the  Holy  Trinity.  If,  then,  the  facts  and  argu- 
ments given  upon  this  point  are  true  and  legitimate,  am  I  not 
warranted  in  saying  that  the  American  Baptists,  who  de- 
scended from  llolliman  and  Williams,  are  all  out  of  order? 
Or,  to  use  the  language  of  Graves,  "such  men  were  not 
qualified  to  found  a  Church  of  Christ.'' 

This  proscriptive  spirit  of  Baptists  generally,  and  of  I\Ir. 
Graves  in  particular,  seems  to  have  come  down  to  them  from 
Roger  Williams.  While  he  was  pastor  of  a  Baptist  church, 
he  declared  his  intention  to  separate  from  his  congregation, 
if  they  would  not  separate  from  the  "antichristian  churches 
in  the  bay,"  meaning  all  who  opposed  his  views  of  baptism ! 
He  rebelled  against  the  civil  authorities,  and  because  his 
congregation  would  not  sustain  him  in  this  violation  of  the 
command  of  God,  he  separated  from  his  congregation.     His 


THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED.         95 

wife  still  adhered  to  the  congregation;  for  which  he  refused 
to  let  her  join  him  in  any  acts  of  worship !  A  warrant  was 
issued  for  "Williams,  for  his  rebellious  course,  and  Capt.  Un- 
derhill  was  dispatched  with  fourteen  men  to  execute  it;  but 
Williams  fled  from  the  province,  and  found  refuge  with 
Massasoitj  the  head  chief  of  the  Wampanoag  Indians.  From 
this  chief  he  obtained  a  small  grant  of  land  on  the  east  side 
of  Narraganset  river,  where  water  was  abundant  for  purposes 
of  baptism!  He  used  to  say  that  he  '^ could  not  endure  the 
Lord's  bishops,'^  and  that  he  liked  the  ^'Lord's  brethren" 
just  as  little — meaning  the  members  of  other  Churches,  Puri- 
tans, Quakers,  etc.  This  hatred  for  bishojps  seems  to  be  cha- 
racteristic of  the  sect  of  which  Williams  was  the  founder  in 
America.  For  proof  of  the  foregoing  statements,  I  refer  to 
pages  227  and  230,  vol.  i.  of  Hildreth's  History  of  the 
United  States. 

I  am  aware  that  Koger  Williams  is  often  complimented  as 
the  advocate  of  freedom  of  opinion,  and  of  religious  tolera- 
tion ;  but  it  is  known  to  all  impartial  readers  of  history  that 
he  was  a  religious  bigot,  and  full  of  that  fanaticism  so  pecu- 
liar to  Baptists.  Even  Hildreth,  who  compliments  him  as  a 
^^ zealous  minister,'^  states  that  he  "exercised  hy  way  of  pro- 
phecy,'' to  the  "acceptance  and  edification  of  his  Church." 
He  laid  claims  to  insjyiration,  and  actually  went  about  pro- 
phesyinQj  and  blending  his  predictions  with  the  great  idea  of 
what  he  called  "soul-liberty." 

It  is  recorded  of  Roger  Williams,  elsewhere,  that  he  got  a 
second  great  idea  into  his  head,  to  wit :  That  as  men  and 
women  came  into  this  world  naked,  so  they  ought  to  come 
into  the  Church  through  the  water  without  clothes  on  !  Was 
such  a  man,  though  he  may  have  been  pious,  qualified  to 
found  a  Church  of  Christ? 

Elder  Graves,  like  most  other  Baptist  writers  and  preachers, 
complains  that  Methodists  receive  into  their  communion  and 


96  THE    (illKAT    IRON    "VVIIKKL    EXAMINKD. 

fellowship  irreligious  jjrrsons,  mere  seekers  of  religion,  wliile 
Baptists  receive  none  but  genuine  Christians,  who,  like  the 
apostles  in  the  days  of  Christ,  are  always  ready  'Ho  give  a 
reason  of  the  hope  that  is  in  them  !"  Methodists  take  in 
seekers,  say  they,  and  take  even  these  upon  a  trial  of  six 
months!  But  Baptists  receive  members  alone  upon  "aw  ex- 
perience of  grace,"  the  congregation  judging  of  that  experi- 
ence, and  voting  accordingly.  And  when  a  person  is  con- 
verted, and  baptized  by  immersion,  they  say  of  him  that  he 
can  7iever  fall  from  grace.  And  yet  they  have  among  them 
some  men  and  women  of  the  very  worst  morals ;  and  not  a 
few  are  to  be  found  in  their  communion  and  fellowship  who 
are  notorious  drunkarcls.  To  say  the  least  of  it,  they  have 
as  many  bad  men  and  hypocrites  in  their  churches,  according 
to  numbers,  as  are  to  be  found  in  any  of  the  other  orthodox 
denominations  of  the  country.  But  once  in  a  while  they 
bring  to  trial  and  actually  expel  from  their  communion  in- 
dividuals :  thus  rejecting  persons  who,  according  to  their 
creed,  God  has  not  rejected!  Is  there  no  insincerity  in  all 
this? 

But  Mr.  Graves's  Church  will  receive  no  one  into  its  fellow- 
ship who  is  not  a  believing  adult ;  and  still,  one-third,  if  not 
one-hcdf  of  all  the  persons  they  do  receive,  give  no  other 
evidence  of  a  genuine  conversion  to  God  than  that  of  a  dream, 
the  hearing  of  a  voice,  the  sight  of  a  ghost,  or  the  visitation 
of  an  angel,  or  of  God  himself!  I  could  give  the  names, 
residences,  and  loud  professions  of  many  of  these  "bright 
and  shining  lights;"  but  I  will  content  myself  with  a  few 
cases  only,  the  truth  of  which  I  vouch  for,  and  which  will 
serve  as  specimens  of  Baptist  conversions. 

CASE    NUMBER    ONE. 

I  was  present  in  December,  1841,  in  the  Presbyterian 
church  in  Jonesborough,  during  a  celebrated  Baptist  revival. 


THE    GREAT    IRON    V/IIEEL    EXAMINED.  97 

when  a  colored  woman  was  received  into  that  Church,  as  a 
portion  of  the  fruits  of  said  revival — the  Baptists  having  been 
kindly  tendered  the  use  of  the  house  by  the  Presbyterians. 
Among  many  other  foolish  things  which  she  mentioned  as  a 
part  of  her  religious  experience,  she  stated  that  "  Clunst  Jirst 
appeared  to  her  loliile  she  was  in  bed  with  a  man  I"  I 
remarked  to  two  Presbyterians,  with  whom  I  was  seated,  that 
I  thought  the  Saviour  had  selected  a  singular  time  and  place 
to  impart  his  grace  to  that  woman  !  They  bowed  assent. 
The  next  day,  this  woman  was  immersed  in  Green's  Mill- 
pond,  in  the  west  end  of  the  town,  upo7i  this  identical 
experience  ! 

CASE   NUMBER   TWO. 

A  lady  in  the  neighborhood  of  Fall  Branch,  some  fifteen 
miles  north  of  Jonesborough,  a  short  time  previous  to  that 
Jonesborough  occurrence,  gave  to  the  Baptist  Church,  as  her 
experience,  that  she  had  attended  the  preaching  of  Elder 
Biggs,  on  a  certain  occasion,  and  was  taken  sick  at  the 
stomach — said  she  soon  learned  it  was  conviction  for  sin — 
engaged  earnestly  in  prayer  to  God — soon  after  vomited  copi- 
ously— thereupon  obtained  immediate  relief,  and  felt  her  load 
of  sin  removed  !  Upon  this  experience,  she  was  received  into 
the  Church,  and  immersed  in  the  name  of  the  Trinity ! 

This  is  changing  the  seat  of  human  depravity,  which  has 
hitherto  been  regarded  as  the  heart.  I  would  like  to  have 
seen  the  discharge !  I  would  likewise  be  gratified  to  know 
whether  or  not  sins  of  omission  and  commission,  after  one's 
conversion,  can  be  got  rid  of,  either  by  vomiting  or  purging  ! 
It  would  greatly  relieve  the  anxieties  of  the  mind,  as  well  as 
':Mve  the  labor  of  mucb  prayer  and  religious  exercise ! 

CASE   NUMBER   THREE. 

A  lady  in   Carter  county,  who  had  been  baptized  by  a 
Methodist — who  left  that  Church  and  was  immersed  by  Mr,  T., 
5 


98  THE    GRKAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED. 

a  Campbellite  minister — in  the  spring  of  1842,  left  that 
Church,  and  was  reimmersed  by  Elder  Edens,  of  the  regular 
Baptist  Church.  In  her  experience^  upon  being  received  into 
the  Baptist  Church,  she  stated  that  she  had,  but  a  short  time 
previous  to  that,  walked  out  into  the  woods,  where  she  met 
Christ  and  the  a2iodles,  in  open  daylight,  under  a  large  tree, 
singing  a  Baptist  song !  She  stated  that  she  united  with 
them  in  singing — that  Christ  pardoned  her  sins — that  she 
could  not  be  mistaken,  for  she  saw  the  blood  running  out  of 
both  of  his  sides,  where  he  had  been  pierced !  Upon  this 
''experience  of  grace,''  she  was  received  into  the  Church, 
pronounced  a  Christian,  and  immersed,  notwithstanding  the 
Saviour  was  really  pierced  in  but  one  side  ! 

CASE   NUMBER   FOUR. 

During  court  week  in  the  town  of  Jonesborough,  in  the 
spring  of  1841, 1  heard  Elder  Bowers  preach  in  the  Methodist 
church,  at  night;  and  among  the  rare  disclosures  he  made, 
he  related  his  religious  experience,  and  gave  the  audience 
what  he  styled  the  ''evidence  of  his  conversion."  He  said 
that  he  went  to  bed  at  night,  a  distressed  and  wicked  sinner 
— ^that  when  he  awoke  in  the  morning,  to  his  utter  astonish- 
ment, he  found  his  wife  and  child  to  be  the  most  handsome 
human  beings  he  had  ever  beheld  with  his  eyes ;  and,  conti- 
nued he,  "by  this  I  knew  I  had  passed  from  death  unto  life  V 

Now,  here  is  an  instance  in  which  religion  made  a  false 
impression^  because  it  rendered  to  the  natural  eye  of  the 
convert,  individuals  handsome,  whom  God,  in  his  providence, 
had  actually  created  otherwise !  We  know  the  parties,  and 
they  are  any  thing  but  handsome  ! 

CASE   NUMBER   FIVE. 

In  Lee  county,  Virginia,  but  a  few  years  since,  a  certain 
man  of  lawful   age  appeared  before  a  Baptist  church,  and 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  99 

asked  to  be  received  iuto  fellowship,  on  the  ground  that  God, 
for  Christ's  sake,  had  pardoned  his  sins.  The  pastor  of  the 
church.  Elder  G ,  told  him  to  proceed  and  tell  the  breth- 
ren what  the  Lord  had  done  for  his  soul.  He  stated  substan- 
tially— "I  went  last  summer  for  to  see  a  Christian  git  baptized, 
and  ever  since  I  have  been  a-wandering,  and  wandering,  and 
wandering :  I  have  been  company  for  nobody,  and  nobody 
has  been  company  for  me  !".     Here  he  came  to  a  dead  halt, 

and   all    hands    looked   blank !     Elder  G relieved   the 

audience  by  requesting  the  brother  to  proceed  and  tell  what 
the  Lord  had  done  for  his  soul.  Looking  the  pastor  full  in 
the  face,  the  new  convert  repeated,  word  for  word,  what  I 

have  just  given  above,  and  halted  as  before  !     Elder  G 

feelingly  inquired,  ^'And  do  you  think,  brother,  the  Lord  has 
converted  your  soul  V  With  a  countenance  beaming  with 
the  hopes  and  expectations  of  one  about  to  be  received  into 
full  fellowship  with  the  only  Scriptural  Church  on  earth,  he 
exclaimed,  '^Now,  old  liossj  you  are  a  chattin' !"  Upon  this 
faith  and  profession,  he  was  unanimously  received,  immersed 
the  next  day,  and  admitted  to  the  Lord's  table,  as  spread  by 
that  denomination ! 

CASE   NUMBER    SIX. 

In  Bradley  county,  Tennessee,  not  long  since,  there  liVed  a 

man  by  the  name  of  P ,  close  to  a  Baptist  church ;  and 

near  to  which  lived  Elder  B ,  who  was  anxious  that  P 

should  ^^jine  the  Church."  Accordingly,  at  a  protracted 
meeting,  several  of  the  "breethring"  surrounded  him,  and 
asked  him  to  relate  his  experience.  He  held  forth  after  this 
style:  ^'The  first  bad  feelins  I  ever  had  on  the  subject  of 

religion,  was  when  I  went  with  Brother  B to  meetin',  at 

Hurricane  Creek.  After  meetin',  several  breethren  went 
home  with  an  old  brother  to  stay  all  night,  and  they  axed  me 
to  go  too.     They  sat  ^around  the  fire  talking  about  religion^ 


100  THE    GREAT    IRON    AVIIKEL   EXAMINED. 

until  I  felt  so  bad  'coze  I  had  none,  I  went  right  to  bed,  and 
went  fast  to  sleep.     I  waked  up  in  the  night,  and  I  found 

that  good  man,  Brother  B ,  in  bed  with  me;  and  I  never 

felt  as  happy  before  !"  This  was  pronounced  a  sound  conver- 
sion. Mr.  P was  received  into  full  fellowship,  and  forth- 
with immersed  in  the  name  of  the  Trinity  ! 

Need  I  multiply  cases  ?  Let  these  suffice,  as  they  are  only 
in  keeping  with  hundreds  dispersed  throughout  the  country,  a 
portion  of  which  every  reader  can  call  to  mind  in  his  own 
range.  Meanwhile,  let  it  not  be  said  that  such  cases  are  those 
of  dear  conversion^  while  those  evidences  upon  which  other 
Churches  have  received  members,  pronouncing  them  Chris- 
tians, are  deceptive.  I  would  as  soon  credit  the  juggling 
pretences  of  icitchcraft,  as  to  .believe  these  ludicrous  accounts 
of  conversions !  And  a  Church  had  better  by  far  give 
countenance  to  the  foolish  superstitions  and  absurd  practices 
of  fortune-tellers,  diviners,  charmers,  spirit-rappers,  and  such 
like,  than  to  encourage  any  human  soul  to  believe  that  these 
vain  conceits  are  religion. 

Those  who  may  be  disposed  to  regard  these  cases  of  Baptist 
conversions  as  severe  in  their  application  to  that  Church,  are 
here  reminded  that  they  are  designed  to  offset  Mr.  Graves's 
"Revival  and  Camp-meeting  Excitements,''  in  his  Thirty- 
ninth  Letter^  where  he  gives  specimens,  and  ridicules 
Methodist  conversion  !  I  claim  in  this,  as  in  every  thing 
connected  with  this  controversy,  to  be  acting  on  the  defensive; 
and  if  I  chance  to  use  a  degree  of  severity  unusual  in  religious 
controversy,  the  mantle  of  enlightened  public  opinion  will 
shield  me  from  blame  ! 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  101 


CHAPTER  YI. 

Elder  Graves  copies  largely  from  F.  A.  Ross,  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church — An  address  delivered  in  Virginia,  a  reply  to  Ross — Corre- 
spondence between  Ross  and  the  author  of  this  work — Ross  opposes 
the  Methodist  doctrine  of  the  Direct  Witness — Distinguished  Pres- 
byterians advocate  it — Ross  charges  Methodists  with  being  Tories 
— Himself  proven  to  be  a  free  negro,  and  the  son  of  an  old  Scotch 
Tory  of  the  Revolution — The  Methodist  common  masses  destitute 
of  moral  honesty  and  integrity  of  character — Methodists  fanatical 
— Presbyterians  more  so,  as  shown  by  the  conduct  of  three  of  the 
editors  of  the  Calvinistic  Magazine — Witchcraft  and  conjurors — 
The  congregation  complimenting  the  address — Reply  by  the  author. 

The  Thirty-ninth  Letter  of  Mr.  Graves,  commencing  on 
page  352  of  his  famous  compilation  of  slanders  long  since 
refuted,  is  made  up  of  an  article  from  the  ^^Calvinistic  Maga- 
zine^^  of  which  the  celebrated  F.  A.  Boss,  a  New  School 
Presbyterian,  was  the  ostensible  editor. 

His  Thirty-second  Letter,  commencing  on  page  384,  is 
nearly  all  taken  from  the  pen  of  this  man  Ross,  from  whom 
he  gathered  his  idea  of  the  revolutions  of  the  Iron  Wheel. 
The  \3iSt  fifteeji  pages  of  this  letter  are  from  the  ^^Calvinistic 
Magazinej'  abusive  of  Methodist  class  and  band  meetings, 
comparing  them  to  the  Romish  confessional,  and  calling  in 
question  the  virtue  and  integrity  of  the  Methodist  member- 
ship, as  well  as  that  of  the  clergy ! 

His  Thirty- third  Letter,  commencing  on  page  403,  is  abu- 
sive of  all  the  peculiar  institutions  of  Methodism,  and  winds 
up  with  showing  ^'how  Presbyterians  regard  it/'  thus  drawing 
upon  the  same  sources. 


102       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

Now,  to  all  this  abuse  of  Mr.  Ross,  copied  and  approved 
by  Mr.  Graves,  I  replied  in  an  Address  which  occupied /our 
hours  in  its  delivery,  kept  up  through  a  period  of  two  i/ears, 
in  East  Tennessee  and  Western  "Virginia.  This  Address  I 
delivered  one  hundred  times,  speaking  in  all  four  hun- 
dred hours — equal  to  thirti/-three  entire  days — often  in  the 
open  air,  and  to  five,  ten,  and  fifteen  hundred  persons,  gene- 
rally, on  each  occasion  !  In  the  winter  season,  I  was  confined 
to  churches;  and  the  crowds  were  not  so  large  as  in  the 
spring,  summer,  and  fall,  when  I  spoke  in  the  open  air.  My 
reply  to  Mr.  Ross  I  deem  a  sufficient  reply  to  the  same  slan- 
ders, when  copied  and  endorsed  by  Mr.  Graves;  and  as  the 
latter  has  given  them  an  extensive  circulation  and  a  permanent 
form,  I  deem  it  proper  to  end  this  chapter  by  copying  my 
Address  entire.  This  document  originally  appeared  in  the 
Jonesborough  Monthly  Review,  of  which  I  was  the 
editor  and  proprietor — a  work  which  had  a  circulation  of  about 
three  thousand,  and  was  got  up  avowedly  to  meet  the  ^^Cal- 
vinistic  Magazine,''  which  was  then  published  in  Abingdon, 
Virginia.  The  slanders  of  Ross  and  Graves,  now  in  book 
form,  will  be  preserved  in  hundreds  of  families  unkind  in 
their  feelings  towards  Methodism.  It  is  therefore  proper  that 
this  Address  should  be  incorporated  into  this  work,  and  placed 
before  the  public  in  a  form  that  will  be  preserved.  The 
Address  explains  itself,  taking  in  connection  therewith  the 
brief  correspondence  that  precedes  it. 

[From  Brownlow's  Monthly  Review.] 

TO  the  public. 

The  following  correspondence  will  show  the  motives  which 
prompt  the  editor  of  this  periodical  to  submit  to  the  world,  in 
pamphlet  form,  an  address  recently  delivered  near  Marion, 
Virginia,  upon  the  subject  of  the  controversy  between  the 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  103 

Methodists  and  Presbyteriaus,  forced  upon  the  former  by  the 
abuse,  misrepresentations,  and  slander  of  that  PRINCE  of 
calumniators,  Frederick  Augustus  Ross  : — 

Marion,  Virginia,  July  11,  1848. 
Rev.  W.  G.  Brownlow: 

Dear  Sir: — The  undersigned,  members  of  the  Methodist  Church, 
would  respectfully  suggest  to  you  the  propriety  of  publishing,  in 
your  Review,  the  address  which  you  delivered  on  the  9th  instant  at 
the  camp-ground  near  this  place,  together  with  the  documents  which 
you  introduced  upon  that  occasion  ; — even  upon  the  charitable  sup- 
position that  tcilful  perversions  of  what  you  there  said  will  not  be  at- 
tempted ;  however,  human  memory  is  so  frail,  that  honest  difference 
of  opinion,  after  the  lapse  of  a  few  days  or  weeks,  will  probably  aris© 
about  it.  Indeed,  we  already  feel  the  necessity  of  having  the  docu- 
mentary evidence  which  you  then  laid  before  us,  embodied  in  some 
form  to  which  we  may  conveniently  refer ;  for  we  cannot  recollect 
your  authorities  with  sufficient  distinctness  to  make  them  available  to 
us  in  ordinary  and  casual  conversations  upon  the  subject.  Besides, 
Sir,  we  incline  to  the  belief  that  the  subject-matter  of  that  day's  ad- 
dress, inclusive  of  documents,  would  be  as  acceptable  to  the  patrons 
of  your  Review  as  any  thing  else  which  you  could  lay  before  them. 
Very  respectfully  yours,  etc., 

John  "\V.  Schoolfield, 
Francis  Newman, 
James  Brumfield, 
James  M.  Prunee, 
John  T.  Thurman, 
Benjamin  L,  Wilbern, 
William  Snavely, 
James  C.  Daily, 
John  Killinger, 
William  W.  Prunee, 
Joseph  Atkins. 

Smythe  County,  Va.,  July  15,  1848. 
To  Messrs.  J.  W.  Schoolfield,  F.  Newman, 
James  Brumfield,  and  others: 

Gentlemen: — Your  communication  of  the  11th  instant,  requesting 
me  to  publish  the  address  I  delivered  last  Sabbath  at  your  camp- 
ground, together  with  the  documents,  was  handed  to  me  on  yesterday, 
and  I  hasten  to  reply. 

I  will  comply  with  your  request,  and  publish  the  address  at  my- 
earliest  convenience.  The  matter  for  the  Review,  now  in  course  of 
printing,  has  been  furnished,  and  will  be  out  soon  after  my  return  to 
Tennessee.  In  the  next  issue,  I  will  give  the  address  you  call  for, 
verbatim  et  literatim  et  punctuatim,  so  as  to  silence  those  who,  I  learn, 


104       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

aro  already  misrepresenting  me  in  various  particulars.  The  address 
I  delivered  at  your  camp-ground  on  last  Sabbath,  which  occupied  four 
and  a  half  hours,  is  the  same  in  substance  which  I  have  been  deliver- 
ing in  Tennessee  and  Virginia  for  two  years  past,  and  which  I  am  safe 
in  saying  I  have  delivered  in  the  hearing  of  fifty  thousand  persons. 

I  find  that  very  great  excitement  prevails  in  your  county  upon  the 
subject  of  this  controversy,  and  especially  in  your  town  and  vicinity. 
I  cannot  say  that  I  regret  it:  I  believe  good  will  grow  out  of  the  con- 
troversy. Let  the  members  and  friends  of  the  Methodist  Church 
stand  firm,  and  resist,  at  all  hazards  personal  to  themselves,  the 
slanders  of  F.  A.  Ross  &  Co.,  and  their  eiforts  to  demolish  our  be- 
loved Methodism.  If  fall  we  must,  let  us  fall  with  our  faces  to  the 
foe:  let  us  fall  in  defence  of  the  "moral  honesty  and  integrity  of 
character"  of  our  "common  masses,"  and  in  defence  of  the  private 
characters  of  our  wives,  mothers,  daughters,  sisters,  and  other  female 
relations,  who  are  held  up  to  public  gaze,  through  the  polluted  pages 
of  the  "  Calvinistic  Magazine,"  as  a  generation  of  jyrostitutes. 

They  say  that  I  have  "raised  the  Devil"  by  my  visit  to  this  country. 
This  is  a  mistake :  the  Devil  was  here  before  I  came  to  the  State,  and 
1  have  only  enraged  his  Satanic  Majesty,  and  caused  him  to  show  his 
hand.  He  was  "raised"  at  the  time  the  authorities  of  the  Presby- 
terian church  in  Marion  invited  him  there,  in  the  person  of  F.  A. 
Ross,  to  dedicate  their  new  church ;  and  also  when  the  sainted  pastor 
of  their  church,  Mr.  Palmer,  and  every  preacher  and  elder  in  the  in- 
famous Athens  Synod,  "with  absolute  unanimity,"  endorsed  the  slan- 
ders, blackguardism,  and  abuse  of  the  "Tract"  and  "Magazine," 
declaring  them  all  to  be  true,  according  to  the  Scriptures  ! 
I  am,  gentlemen,  respectfully,  etc., 

W.  G.  BROWNLOW. 


ADDRESS. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : — There  is  nothing  more  com- 
mon in  this  age  of  polemic  warfare  than  for  every  combatant 
who  assails  the  doctrines,  motives,  or,  if  you  please,  the 
character  of  another,  to  claim  the  right  to  do  so,  because  (as 
he  says)  he  acts  on  the  defensive.  The  reason  of  this  must 
be  obvious  to  every  reflecting  mind.  He  who  acts  in  the  de- 
fensive is  entitled  to  the  sympathies  of  the  public,  because  he 
is  supposed  to  have  been  unjustly  assailed;  and  these  sym- 
pathies will  justify  the  defender,  while  the  aggressor  would 
justly  deserve  the  opprobrium  of  the  iutelligent,  and  the 
frowns  of  the  candid.    But,  as  both  your  humble  speaker  and 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINFD.  105 

F.  A.  Ross,  of  the  New  School  Presbyterian  Church,  and  the 
respective  friends  of  each,  claim  this  ground,  it  is  of  the  ut- 
most importance  that  this  controversy  should  be  settled,  and 
that  the  public  should  be  at  once  enabled  to  decide  to  whom 
this  high  claim  belongs.  It  seldom  occurs,  in  a  family  or 
neighborhood  quarrel,  that  both  of  the  parties  to  the  dispute 
are  acting  on  the  defensive.  Some  one  commenced  the  war; 
some  one  is  the  aggressor;  some  one  is  to  blame  more  than 
aijothcr  for  the  existence  of  said  quarrel.  So  it  is  in  the 
present  controversy  which  divides,  distracts,  and  agitates  all 
East  Tennessee  and  Western  Virginia.  AVho  is  it  ?  It  is  my 
purpose,  before  I  leave  this  stand,  to  show  you  who  is  guilty 
in  this  case. 

To  defend  one's  self,  presupposes  an  unwarranted  attack 
from  another — not  merely  an  attack,  but  one  for  which  there 
was  no  just  cause.  I  may  attack  an  enemy  of  mine — a  sworn 
and  uncompromising  foe — with  all  the  violence  of  which  my 
nature  is  capable,  and  still  I  may  act  on  the  defensive,  if  the 
previous  conduct  and  threats  of  violence  were  such  as  to 
make  my  assault  necessary  to  my  future  safety.  You,  gentle- 
men, any  of  you,  may  attack  an  enemy  in  like  manner,  and 
still  act  on  the  defensive,  if  the  previous  threats  of  that 
enemy  were  such,  in  the  eyes  of  the  law,  as  to  make  that  at- 
tack necessary  to  your  future  safety.  Nay,  it  is  a  principle 
in  common  law,  both  here  and  in  England,  that  if  an  evil- 
disposed  person  threaten  your  life  upon  sight,  you  are  justi- 
fied in  shooting  him  down  upon  sight.  This  was  the  prin- 
ciple the  gallant  Putnam  acted  upon  when  he  assailed  the 
wolf  in  his  den.  He  made  the  attack,  but  it  was  in  self- 
defence.  The  nowLlNGS  and  prowlings  of  the  ^^  varmint" 
in  the  neighborhood,  to  say  nothing  of  his  depredations  among 
the  live-stock  of  the  farmer,  could  no  longer  be  tolerated. 
The  vile  "wolf  in  sheep's  clothing,"  upon  whom  I  am  visit- 
ing a  righteous  retribution,  has  "  howled'^  about  the  borders 
5* 


106       TIE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

of  Methodism  long  enough !  But  how  was  it  when  the 
Uuited  States  declared  war  against  Great  Britain  ?  In  the 
language  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  she  "kept 
among  us,  in  time  of  peace,  standing  armies,  without  the 
consent  of  our  Legislatures,''  etc.,  etc. 

But,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  how  stands  the  case  as  between 
Mr.  Ross  and  your  humble  speaker,  or  any  other  Methodist 
preacher  who  may  have  engaged  in  this  controversy?  Who 
commenced  this  "  war  of  words  and  fight  of  quills  ?"  In  the 
language  of  the  time-honored  instrument  just  quoted,  "  let 
facts  be  submitted  to  a  candid  world."  Frederick  Augus- 
tus Ross,  of  the  New  School  Presbyterian  Church,  com- 
menced this  war;  nor  can  he  deny  it,  with  any  degree  of 
countenance.  He  began  the  war,  moreover,  without  any 
provocation,  and  at  a  time  that  peace  reigned  in  all  the 
Churches,  and  when  God  was  very  powerfully  reviving  his 
work  in  most  of  the  Churches.  Yes,  at  this  time  it  was  that 
the  Devil  granted  this  vile  miscreant  the  commission  of 
Lieutenant-General,  to  put  a  stop  to  the  work,  and  to  disturb 
the  peace  of  society  ! 

Mr.  Ross,  as  is  his  custom,  composed  an  able,  argumenta- 
tive, and  slanderous  discourse,  about  four  years  ago,  familiarly 
known  as  his  ''Turnpike  Sermon,"  in  which  he  ridiculed, 
misrepresented,  and  vilified  the  whole  Methodist  Church. 
This  discourse  he  delivered  all  round  his  extensive  circuit  of 
East  Tennessee  and  Western  Virginia,  as  bitterly  as  he  seems 
to  be  opposed  to  circuit-riding.  When  this  sermon  was  worn 
threadbare,  he  prepared  another  on  Cliurch  government,  in 
which  he  stated  that  Methodism  Is  worse  than  Romanism. 
Next  in  order  came  his  memorable  discourse  upon  the 
''Direct  Witness."  To  all  this,  extending  through  an  entire 
year,  the  Methodists  made  no  reply.  Their  silence  was  con- 
strued into  COWARDICE,  and  our  members  were  everywhere 
told  that  our  ministers  were  afraid  to  meet  Mr.  Ross.     The 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED,  107 

vain  and  wicked  man  gave  in  to  the  same  delusion  himself,  and 
made  a  publication  in  which  he  held  up  the  Methodist  clergy, 
one  and  all,  as  a  pack  of  white-livered  cowards,  who  would  go 
among  the  caves  and  mountains  and  misrepresent  Presby- 
terianism,  but  who,  when  they  came  into  Abingdon,  Jones- 
borough,  Kogersville,  Greenville,  Knoxville,  etc.,  took  care  to 
tread  lightly  in  flannel  socks  !  Hush  !  Take  care  !  You  are 
in  Abingdon  now  !  you  are  in  Knoxville,  forsooth,  among 
people  of  resiycctabillty  —  take  care  how  you  put  your  feet 
down  !  Well,  I  am  not  here  to-day  for  the  purpose  of  repre- 
senting Methodist  preachers  in  a  hullying  capacity.  I  will, 
however,  speak  of  one  who  neither  fears  F.  A.  Ross  nor  all 
the  multitudes  that  go  with  him ;  and  for  the  self-same  reason, 
too,  that  Hezekiah  and  his  captains  of  war  declared  they  were 
not  afraid  of  the  King  of  Assyria  nor  all  the  multitudes  that 
were  with  him  ;  namely,  that  with  them  there  is  but  an  arm 
of  flesh,  while  they  had  the  Lord  our  God  to  help  them,  and 
to  fight  their  battles  ! 

Again,  Mr.  Ross  held  up  this  fundamental  doctrine  of  the 
Methodist  Church  —  I  mean  the  icitness  of  the  Spirit  —  as 
*'  unscriptural,  false,  fanatical,  and  of  mischievous  tendency." 
On  this  issue,  he  challenged  the  whole  Methodist  ministry  to 
meet  him,  from  our  bishops  down  to  our  local  brethren.  His 
challenge  was  accepted  by  "William  H.  Rogers,  one  of  the 
itinerant  preachers  in  this  Conference  in  Sullivan  county,  and 
a  discussion  ensued,  which  occupied  a  whole  day,  at  which 
not  less  than  two  thousand  persons  were  in  attendance.  I  was 
there,  a  silent  spectator;  and  while  I  have  the  highest  pos- 
sible regard  for  my  friend  Rogers,  it  is  due  to  candor  to  state 
that  he,  like  every  other  Methodist  preacher  I  have  heard  in 
reply  to  Ross,  labored  under  the  false  notion  that  enlightened 
public  opinion  required  him  to  treat  his  opponent  as  a  dig- 
nified Christian  minister,  and  to  extend  to  him  all  the  cour- 
tesies of  the  sacred  desk.    The  result  was,  that  he  contradictecl 


108       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

llogers,  interrupted  him,  and  rudely  sought  to  embarrass  him 
every  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes.  I  spit  upon  such  vitiated 
public  taste  as  this :  I  bid  defiance  to  any  such  false  concep- 
tions of  courtesy  as  this.  I  take  the  slanderer  by  the  throat, 
and  drag  him  forth  from  his  hiding-place,  and  shake  him  naked 
over  hell,  in  all  his  deformity !  This  I  intend  to  do  on  this 
occasion. 

Did  all  this  public  speaking  against  Methodism  satisfy  the 
slanderous  appetite  of  Mr.  Ross  ?  No.  He  followed  this  up 
with  the  publication  at  the  North  of  the  bantling  I  hold  in 
my  hand — a  "  Tract"  against  Wesley  and  the  Methodists,  of 
one  hundred  and  eight  dreadful  pages.  The  vile  and  slan- 
derous character  of  this  publication,  since  endorsed  by  the 
Synod  of  Tennessee,  and  recommended  by  the  ministers  of 
that  Church,  I  shall  show  up  before  I  leave  this  stand.  Not 
content  with  this  publication,  Mr.  Ross,  and  his  associates  in 
blackguardism  and  lying,  commenced  the  publication  in  Ab- 
ingdon of  the  '^  Calvinistic  Magazine,"  the  very  first 
number  of  which  contained  an  open  declaration  of  war,  and 
announced  the  determination  of  its  reverend  editors,  Isaac 
Anderson,  Fred.  A.  Ross,  James  King,  and  James  Mc- 
Chain,  to  wage  a  war  of  extermination  against  the  entire 
Methodist  Church.  And  just  here,  in  the  presence  of  this 
large  assembly,  and  in  the  fear  of  God,  I  proclaim  from  this 
sacred  stand  that,  for  low  Billingsgate  slang,  obscene  vulgar- 
ity, and  iclwlesale  abuse  of  public  and  private  character,  this 
magazine  is  without  a  parallel  among  all  the  dirty,  rabid,  and 
disgraceful  publications  of  the  age.  And  still  this  is  the  vul- 
gar, lying,  and  dirty  publication  which  Mr.  Ross  boasts  can 
be  found  on  the  centre-tables  in  all  the  parlors  of  Presbyterian 
families  in  Marion  and  elsewhere.  Quite  a  compliment  this 
to  the  taste  of  Presbyterian  ladies  in  Marion  ! 

I  repeat,  and  I  pray  you  not  to  forget  it,  that  I  do  not  re- 
Btrict  the  responsibility  for  the  contents  of  this  magazine  to 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  109 

the  four  ministers  named  as  its  editors.     I  herewith  read  to 
you  from  the  editorial  address  given  in  the  first  number : 

In  October,  1845,  they  (your  editors)  laid  the  subject  before  the 
Synod  of  Tennessee ;  and  meeting  -with  their  cordial  approbation 
AND  co-oPERATioN,  began  the  publication  of  the  present  series  of  the 
magazine  in  1846. 

Since  then,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  the  Synod  has  approved 
of  the  course  of  the  magazine  in  its  session  at  Athens,  Ten- 
nessee, and  earnestly  recommended  it  to  all  their  churches. 
In  this  vote  of  endorsement,  Mr.  Ross  boasts,  in  an  editorial, 
that  every  preacher  and  elder  in  the  Synod  voted  by  formal 
resolution.  He  says,  to  use  his  own  words,  that  the  Synod 
adopted  both  his  tract  and  magazine  "with  absolute  una- 
nimity^^ — that  is  to  say,  without  a  dissenting  voice  !  But 
more  about  this  endorsement  before  I  have  done. 

Now,  when  an  enemy  wages  an  unprovoked  war  against 
me,  or  the  Church  of  my  choice,  which  is  the  same,  I  am  cer- 
tainly acting  in  the  defensive  when  I  attempt  to  repel  the  in- 
vasion. And  when  my  character,  and  the  private  and  personal 
character  of  every  female  relative  I  have  on  earth  is  assailed 
with  bitterness  and  malice — not  by  this  degraded  free  man 
of  color  only,  but  by  the  whole  Synod  of  Tennessee — I  have 
a  right  to  defend ;  and  at  the  risk  of  my  life,  I  will  defend. 
Nay,  I  am  here  to-day  for  that  purpose,  prepared  to  meet  any 
consequences.  Some  of  the  lying  partisans  of  Mr,  Ross  have 
the  audacity  to  say  that  the  Methodists  commenced  this  war, 
and  that  he  is  defending.  I  have  given  you  this  history  of  the 
controversy  expressly  with  a  view  to  correct  this  slander. 
From  the  facts  which  I  have  submitted — and  facts  they  are — 
you  can  determine  who  is  the  aggressor.  Mr.  Ross  com- 
menced the  war;  but  the  Synod  of  Tennessee — like  the  Ame- 
rican Congress  in  the  case  of  the  Mexican  war — adopted  it, 
and  has  made  it  the  war  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.     For 


110  THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

two  dreadful  years,  Mr.  lloss  carried  on  this  war  of  "  con- 
quest" without  any  opposition.  But,  with  God's  help,  he 
shall  have  opposition  from  this  out,  until  he  prays  for  a  treaty 
of  peace — opposition  as  untiring  and  vigorous  as  he  has  been 
vindictive  and  malevolent. 

The  captains  and  lieutenants  under  this  great  guerilla 
chief  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  now  tell  you  that  the 
magazine  was  set  on  foot  to  meet  the  "Episcopalian,^^  a 
Methodist  paper  published  at  Knoxville.  This  is  false; 
because  that  paper  was  started,  in  part,  to  meet  the  antici- 
pated slanders  of  the  magazine.  The  Episcopalian  was  first 
agreed  upon  at  the  Athens  Conference,  and  I  published  the 
prospectus  for  the  Conference.  Previous  to  that,  the  pros- 
pectus for  the  magazine  had  been  published  in  the  Abingdon 
papers,  in  one  of  the  Jonesborough  papers,  and,  I  believe,  in 
the  Knoxville  papers :  these  itinerant  ministers  in  the  stand 
behind  me  will  attest  the  truth  of  these  statements. 

The  friends  of  F.  A.  Ross  everywhere  find  it  necessary,  in 
order  to  sustain  him,  to  show  that  his  speeches  and  publica- 
tions were  not  an  attach  upon  Methodism,  but  that  they  were 
provohed.  In  many  places  they  apologize  for  him  by  de- 
claring that  / — yes,  /,  a  common  disturber  of  the  peace,  and 
a  man  who  will  let  no  one  escape — first  got  up  the  war. 
Even  the  Rev.  A.  Converse,  the  editor  of  the  Christian 
Observer,  the  organ  of  Presbyterianism,  published  in  Phila- 
delphia, gravely  asserts  in  his  paper  that  Mr.  Ross  has  said 
certain  hard  things  about  Methodism,  "in  answer  to  what 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Brownlow  had  published  against  him.'^  This  is 
a  falsehood  as  absurd  as  ever  sickened  the  imagination  of  a 
fool.  Here,  even  in  this  town,  you  know  it  is  boasted  that 
Mr.  Ross  has  never  noticed  any  thing  I  have  said,  and  that 
he  does  not  attend  my  appointments  because  he  regards  me 
as  being  beneath  his  notice ! 

Ladies  and  gentlemen !     This  war  had  progressed  for  twc 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  Ill 

long  and  dreadful  years,  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Ross,  with  his 
indiscreet  friends  boasting  that  the  Methodist  preachers  were 
afraid  to  meet  him,  before  I  opened  my  mouth  in  public,  or 
even  wrote  a  paragraph  upon  the  subject.  And  when  I  did 
engage,  I  did  it  reluctantly,  because  I  knew  that  it  would 
injure  me  in  ^pecuniary  point  of  view,  as  it  has  done;  but  I 
acted  from  a  sense  of  duty.  I  knew  that  others  were  engaging, 
more  competent  to  debate  the  points  at  issue  than  myself;  but 
even  they  were  treating  him  with  too  much  courtesy.  And 
without  incurring  the  imputation  of  vanity,  I  hope  you  will 
allow  me  to  say,  that  he  never  did  xqcqiyq  justice  at  the  hands 
of  a  Methodist  preacher  until  I  took  him  up.  True,  he 
recently  caught  it  at  Glade  Spring,  at  the  hands  of  the  able 
and  accomplished  President  of  Emory  and  Henry  College. 
Yes,  President  Collins,  as  I  am  informed,  though  he  did  not 
violate  any  of  the  rules  of  courtesy  in  debate,  nevertheless 
showed  the  defects  of  Ross  to  be  as  numerous  as  were  the 
ingredients  which  the  witches  of  the  dark  cave  threw  into  the 
boiling  cauldron.  He  showed  Mr.  Ross  to  have,  as  I  will  do 
to-day,  an 

"Eye  of  newt,  toe  of  frog, 
Wool  of  bat,  and  tongue  of  dog, 
Adder's  fork,  and  blind-worm's  sting, 
Lizard's  leg,  and  owlet's  wing." 

All  that  now  remains  to  be  presented,  by  way  of  prelimi- 
nary, is  contained  in  the  following  correspondence  between 
myself  and  Mr.  Ross.  This  correspondence  is  full  of  inte- 
rest, and  will  amuse  you  no  little.  Such  diplomacy  you  have 
not  witnessed  since  "Webster  and  Ashburton  concluded  their 
treaty  of  peace !  Mr.  Ross  outdoes  me  in  expressions  of  high 
regard  for  me,  and  opinions  of  my  integrity;  but  this  is 
because  he  entertained  higher  opinions  of  me  than  I  did  of 
him !     As  a  conscientious  man,  I  could  not  give  him  a  better 


112       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED, 

character  in  a  private  letter  than  I  was  willing  to  givo  him  in 
a  public  discussion : 

JoNESBOROUGn,  Dcccmber  14,  1846. 
Rev.  F.  a.  Ross  : 

Dear  Sir: — The  first  of  six  appointments  I  have  published  to 
reply  to  your  "Tract"  against  Mr.  Wesley  and  the  Methodists,  is  on 
Sabbath  next,  at  Blountville,  at  which  time  and  place  I  shall  be  glad 
to  see  you,  as  well,  also,  as  at  the  remaining  five.  I  propose  to  give 
you  hour  about,  on  each  occasion.  Should  you  not  deem  it  worth  the 
while  to  attend,  I  shall  of  course  proceed  to  fill  my  engagements. 

For  a  knowledge  of  the  propositions  I  shall  assume,  on  these  occa- 
sions, I  refer  you  to  the  Jonesborough  Whig  of  the  9th  inst.,  a  copy 
of  which  is  herewith  forwarded  to  your  address. 

Respectfully,  etc., 

W.  G.  BROWN  LOW. 

The  positions  I  took,  and  which  I  published  in  the  news- 
paper referred  to^  were  the  following,  and  covered  the  ground 
of  the  controversy  laid  down  in  the  ^'  Tract/'  except  so  much 
of  that  work  as  was  personal,  and  assailed  the  characters  of 
our  ministers  and  members  : 

I.  The  doctrine  of  the  Direct  Witness  of  the  Spirit,  as  taught 
by  John  Wesley,  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Bible,  held  by  all  orthodox 
Christians  in  Europe  and  America;  and,  with  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
has  long  been  a  clearly  defined  article  of  religious  belief. 

II.  That  Frederick  Augustus  Ross  solemnly  swore,  before  God 
and  the  Presbytery  at  which  he  was  made  a  minister,  that  he  would 
preach  and  defend  the  doctrine  of  the  Direct  Witness  of  the  Spirit ; 
that  he  did  so  from  the  pulpit  and  press,  for  several  years  thereafter, 
and  in  a  printed  sermon,  in  1828,  before  he  abatidoned  Presbyterian- 
ism,  he  declared  that  such  as  deny  this  doctrine  have  7io  religion! 

III.  That  "witchcraft  and  ghost  stories"  were  wntveraaZZy  believed 
in  Europe  till  the  16th  century,  and  maintained  their  ground  with 
firmness  till  the  middle  of  the  17th  century;  that  the  Presbyterian 
Church  entered  extensively  into  the  belief,  even  before  the  days  of 
Wesley;  that  in  New  England,  in  North  America,  in  the  years  1691-2, 
there  were  almost  as  many  imprisonments  and  executions,  on  account 
of  ivitchcraft,  as  there  have  been  Mexicans  slain  by  our  army  in  the 
present  war;  and  that  some  of  the  Presbyterian  clergy  refused  to  pray 
for  persons  condemned  to  die  on  charges  of  witchcraft,  till  said  per- 
sons would  acknowledge  themselves  to  be  tvitches  and  tvizards! 

To  this  brief  epistle  and  these  printed  items,  I  received 
the  following  answer : 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  113 

KoTHEEWOOD,  December  21,  1846. 
Rev.  W.  G.  Brownlow: 

Dear  Sir: — Your  polite  communication  of  the  14th  was  received 
Saturday  last,  on  my  return  from  Rogersville. 

I  have  no  doubt  the  discussion  to  which  you  invite  me  "would  be,  on 
your  part,  as  fair  and  honorable  [and  of  course  as  gentlemanly!] 
as  you  propose  or  I  could  desire;  and  there  might  be  occasions  when 
it  would  be  proper  for  me  to  accept  an  in\itaticn.  But  I  decline  the 
meetings  you  propose,  i?i  the  same  courtesy  which  you  have  been  pleased 
to  exhibit  totcard  me,  simply  upon  the  ground  that  I  deem  such  a  meet- 
ing uncalled  for  on  my  part,  for  the  following  reasons : 

The  question  of  the  Direct  Witness  of  the  Spirit,  as  taught  by  Mr. 
Wesley,  is  a  great  question,  now  abroad  in  the  land,  and  it  is  now  to 
be  settled  hy  the  press.  Oral  debate  now,  anywhere,  and  especially 
within  the  circle  of  appointments  you  propose,  would,  I  think,  have 
little  influence  in  satisfying  the  public  mind.  The  debate  eighteen 
months  ago,  invited  by  me,  had  the  desired  result  of  arousing  attention. 
The  publications  on  both  sides,  and  notices  from  the  pulpits,  have 
given  the  subject  deep  lodgment  in  the  general  mind.  I  am  myself 
perfectly  satisfied  with  the  progressive  tendency  of  things,  as  to  Mr. 
Wesley's  views  of  the  Direct  Witness  of  the  Spirit. 

In  reference  to  my  own  views  of  this  point  of  doctrine,  you  are 
mistaken,  and  do  me  injustice,  in  supposing  that  I  differ  from  the 
Presbyterian  Confession  of  Faith  and  Catechisms.  I  believe  the  doc- 
trine exactly  as  there  expressed.  Moreover,  I  hold  with  Henry, 
Doddridge,  Scott,  Stuart,  Barnes,  Chalmers,  etc.,  precisely,  and  just 
because  I  deem  these  writers  correct  exponents  of  the  Confession  of 
Faith,  and,  as  such,  holding  views  the  opposite  of  that  advanced  by 
Mr.  Wesley.  As  decisive  of  this  fact,  I  quoted  the  Confession  of 
Richard  Watson,  whom  you  will  acknowledge  to  be  your  ablest  theo- 
logian. He  confesses  that  Mr.  Wesley  ^^ differed  from  a  great  part 
of  the  evangelical  clergy  of  the  day,''  and  gives  Scott  [and  the  very 
passage  quoted  by  me  in  my  book]  as  expressing  the  view  of  the 
"great  part  of  the  evangelical  clergy"  against  Mr.  Wesley.  [See 
Watson's  Institutes,  vol.  ii.  pp.  272  and  284.] 

So,  then,  the  fact  stands  thus :  Richard  Watson,  the  ablest  of  ^Me- 
thodist writers,  admits  that  "a  great  part  of  the  evangelical  clergy 
of  the  day"  differ  from  Mr.  Wesley,  and  that  Scott  is  a  fair  sample  of 
this  body  who  differ  from  Mr.  Wesley — that  is  to  say,  such  writers  as 
Henry,  Doddridge,  Chalmers,  etc.,  etc.  If  so,  then,  do  these  writers 
fairly  exhibit  the  views  of  the  Confession  of  Faith  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church?  If  the}^  do.  then  they  and  the  Confession  are  against 
Mr.  Wesley,  by  the  concession  of  Mr.  Watson.  Very  well:  I  am  [if 
I  understand  myself  and  them]  with  those  writers  and  the  Confes- 
sion of  Faith,  and  am  against  Mr.  Wesley  as  far  as,  and  no  farther, 
precisely,  than  Watson  admits  the  great  part  of  the  evangelical  clergy 
to  be. 

I  have  written  this,  Mr.  Brownlow,  for  your  owji  private  eye  and 
consideration  alone.     If,  after  this,  you  think  proper  to  proceed  to 


114       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

attempt  to  show,  from  the  pulpit,  that  I  am  viohiting  my  ordination 
vows,  [and  of  course  you  must  mean  knowingly  and  wilfully,  or  in 
criminal  ignorance,]  I  have  nothing  more  to  say. 

Yours,  very  respectfully, 

FRED.  A.  PvOSS. 

Ladies  and  gentlemen  !  As  tedious  as  I  have  been  in  mv 
exordium,  you  must  indulge  me  while  I  offer  a  few  brief 
comments  upon  this  extraordinary  letter  : 

1.  And,  first,  the  time  for  oral  debate  had  passed  away 
when  this  invitation  was  given  to  Mr.  Ross  to  meet  me,  and 
through  the  press  alone  were  these  disputed  questions  to  be 
settled.  Still,  the  infatuated  man  has  gone  on  ever  since,  in 
every  direction,  to  discuss  these  points ! 

2.  Nothing  could  be  effected  within  the  circle  I  had  pro- 
posed. I  was  unfortunate  in  selecting  my  points  for  action. 
But  where  were  these  six  appointments  to  which  he  was 
invited?  They  were  in  Blountville,  Kingsport,  Elizabeth  ton, 
Rheatown,  Jonesborough,  and  the  vicinity  of  Washington 
College.  I  supposed  these  were  all  important  points,  and  he 
seems  to  have  thought  so  since,  as  he  has  gone  to  some  of 
them  and  opened  a  brisk  fire,  "solitary  and  alone."  Indeed, 
it  is  perfectly  in  order  to  debate  these  points  in  dispute  any- 
where, when  he  can  go  in  a  gang  by  himself;  but  when  he  is 
to  have  some  one  with  him  who  has  the  moral  and  physical 
courage  to  expose  his  forgeries,  falsehoods,  and  slanders,  the 
time  for  oral  debate  has  ceased,  and  the  press  alone  is  the 
medium  through  which  these  controverted  points  are  to  be 
settled ! 

3.  He  quotes  Richard  Watson,  whom  I  frankly  and  thus 
publicly  acknowledge  to  be  one  of  our  ablest  theologians. 
And  he  gives  chapter  and  verse  where  he  says  Watson  ac- 
knowledges that  Mr.  Wesley  taught  a  different  doctrine,  upon 
the  subject  of  the  Direct  Witness,  from  that  taught  by  the 
"great  part  of  the  evangelical  clergy  of  the  day''  in  which 
Wesley   lived.      He   cites,    as   you   will   perceive,  Watson's 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL  EXAMINED.  115 

Theological  Institutes,  vol.  ii.  pages  272  and  284.  And  will 
you  believe  me  when  I  say  that  those  pages  prove  no  such 
thing '{  Strange  as  it  may  seem  to  you,  those  pages  prove  no 
such  thing!  He  deliberately  lies.  He  cites  the  page,  sup- 
posing that  I  will  take  his  word  for  it.  Here  is  the  volume  of 
the  Institutes,  and  here  are  the  pages  cited.  Richard  Watson 
proves  the  doctrine  of  the  Direct  Witness  to  be  scriptural; 
and  to  show  that  himself  and  Mr.  Wesley  were  not  singular 
in  the  belief,  he  quotes  Hill's  Lectures,  Bishop  Bull,  Scott's 
Commentary,  and  Bishop  Horsley.  On  page  284,  Watson 
lets  down  upon  Calvinism,  and  declares  that  controversy,  by 
Calvinists,  has  always  been  conducted  with  great  intempe- 
rance. On  page  275  of  this  same  volume,  Mr.  Watson  de- 
clares his  belief  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Direct  Witness,  and 
controverts  the  Ross  view  of  it,  as  described  by  Bishop  Bull 
in  an  extract  he  gives,  and  in  another  extract  he  takes  from 
Scott.  After  stating  the  views  of  Bull  and  Scott,  Mr.  Wat- 
son adds : 

To  this  statement  of  the  doctrine  we  object  that  it  makes  the  testi- 
mony of  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  point  of  fact,  but  the  testimony  of  our 
own  spirit ;  and,  by  holding  but  one  witness,  contradicts  St.  Paul,  who, 
as  we  have  seen,  holds  tivo.  For  the  testimony  is  that  of  our  own 
consciousness  of  certain  moral  changes  which  have  taken  place — no 
other  is  admitted,  and  therefore  it  is  but  one  testimony. 

4.  Mr.  Watson  does  confess,  in  his  Life  of  Wesley,  that 
Mr.  Wesley  differed  from  the  greater  part  of  the  evangelical 
clergy  of  his  time,  in  his  plans  for  evangelizing  the  world. 
This  no  Methodist  denies.  Rather,  we  glory  in  its  truth — 
we  boast  that  his  plans  of  yearly  and  quarterly  conferences, 
circuit-riding,  class-meetings,  and  love-feasts,  were  unlike  the 
operation  of  other  Churches. 

5.  This  is  a  confidential  letter — strictly  so — intended  for 
my  eye  and  consideration  alone !  Do  you  hear  that.  Master 
Brooks  ?     I  have  read  you  the  letter,  but  I  enjoin  it  upon 


116  THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAmNED. 

you,  one  and  all,  not  to  speak  of  its  contents  !  Especially  do 
I  charp;e  you,  ladies,  not  to  name  it;  for  they  say  you  are 
more  apt  to  tell  what  you  hear,  than  are  the  gentlemen  ! 

But  do  you  wish  to  know  the  secret  of  this  injunction  of 
secresT/ ?  I  will  tell  you.  Mr.  Ross's  friends  everywhere 
take  the  ground  that  he  will  not  condescend  to  meet  me  in 
debate ;  (Heaven  save  the  mark  !)  and  he  favors  the  same 
view  in  his  private  conversations  with  them.  Well,  in  this 
letter  to  me,  he  places  his  refusal  upon  different  grounds :  he 
says  the  time  is  passed,  and  the  press  is  the  medium  !  He 
does  not  object  because  I  am  beneath  his  notice — no,  not  he. 
He  declares  here,  over  his  proper  signature,  that  I  am  a 
Christian  minister — a  courteous  and  a  fair  debater — an  honor- 
able man  and  a  gentleman.  But,  says  he,  this  is  for  your  own 
private  eye,  Mr.  Brownlow  :  do  not  say  any  thing  about  it, 
because  I  don't  want  my  friends  to  know  that  I  talk  one  way 
about  you  behind  your  back,  and  then  write  the  very  reverse 
of  that  to  you,  in  a  private  letter  ! 

I  repeat,  that  I  am  here  endorsed  as  a  gentleman  and  a 
Christian,  who  cannot  and  will  not  do  any  man  injustice. 
Indeed,  more  character  is  given  me  than  I  ever  had  the  vanity 
to  claim.  When  I  first  perused  this  love-letter,  I  was  tempted 
to  bite  my  finger,  to  see  if  it  were  me.  But  I  am  sorry  that 
the  endorsement  is  not  from  a  more  respectable  source.  Nay, 
I  shall  convince  you,  before  I  leave  this  stand,  as  heavily  as  it 
may  bear  upon  me,  that  this  my  eulogist  is  unworthy  of  con- 
fidence, and  that  he  will  not  tell  the  truth  when  a  lie  is  more 
convenient ! 

Ladies  and  gentlemen !  You  have  listened  to  the  strong 
and  vivid  pictures  of  Mr.  Ross  and  myself,  drawn  by  his 
friends  and  my  enemies,  in  this  vicinity.  They  have  set 
before  you,  in  bold  relief,  his  eminent  abilities,  his  attainments 
in  literature,  and  his  thorough  accomplishments  in  all  things 
pertaining  to  the  ministry.     You  have  heard  of  his  charity. 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  117 

his  meekness,  his  manliness,  his  piety,  his  frankness,  his 
gentlemanly  bearing,  his  independence  and  bravery,  his  dis- 
regard of  popular  clamor — making  no  conflicting  statemejits, 
concealing  no  opinions  !  This  picture  is  presented  in  contrast 
with  that  of  the  humble  individual  who  now  addresses  you — 
who  is  utterly  ignorant,  having  no  education,  no  information  : 
having  no  character — a  common  liar — a  mere  epistolary  driv- 
eller :  having  flooded  the  country  with  blackguardism  and 
slander — rude  and  unpolished  in  manners  ! 

Now,  ladies,  look  on  this  picture,  and  then  on  that.  The 
first  is  the  Presbyterian  Hyperion;  the  latter,  the  Methodist 
Satyr.  Now,  my  first  observation  is,  that  when  I  shall  have 
exhibited  the  real  picture  of  Mr.  Ross  to  this  assembly — which 
I  intend  to  do,  for  I  am  a  skilful  artist — these  Virginia  ad- 
mirers of  his  will  not  know  their  kind,  aff"ectionate,  and 
dearly  beloved  pastor ! 

But  what  will  become  of  your  speaker  ?  Shall  I  present  a 
portrait  of  him?  No,  ladies;  no,  gentlemen,  no.  His  address 
here  to-day  must  speak  for  itself.  Let  him  pass  for  a  low, 
vulgar  ragamufiiu,  whose  true  picture  has  been  given  by  the 
artistic  skill  of  the  accomplished  Rossites  of  Marion  !  To  be 
serious,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  this  studied  disparagement  of 
your  humble  servant  need  not,  and  ought  not,  to  excite  a 
feeling  of  indignation.  These  are  the  ravings  of  desioair ; 
and  as  such,  are  objects  of  commiseration.  They  can  do  no 
harm.  The  wives  and  sisters  of  certain  gentlemen  have  taken 
Mr.  Ross  by  the  arms,  and  marched  with  him  to  and  from  the 
church,  and  have  sat  with  him  at  table ;  and  it  is  necessary 
that  he  should  now  be  sustained  as  a  gentleman.  The  people 
of  this  country  have  sense — they  have  sagacity — they  have 
judgment.  With  their  judgment  of  men  and  worth  of  men 
I  for  one  will  be  satisfied. 

Ladies  and  gentlemen !  I  will  next  proceed  to  read  you 
the  extracts  from  Mr.  Wesley's  celebrated  Tenth  and  Eleventh 


118  THE   GREAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED. 

Sermons,  out  of  which  tliis  controversy  has  grown,  and  upon 
wliich  ;Mr.  lloss  founds  the  charge  of  falsehood,  fanaticism, 
etc. 

Mr.  Wesley  preaches  two  sermons  on  one  text,  Romans 
viii.  IG  :  '■^Thc  Spirit  itself  hearcth  witness  with  our  spirits 
that  we  are  the  children  of  God.'' 

In  his  Tenth  Sermon,  on  this  text,  Mr.  Wesley  says : 

Let  us  first  consider  -what  is  the  witness,  or  testimony  of  our 
spirit.  But  I  cannot  here  but  desire  all  who  are  for  swallowing  up 
the  testimony  of  the  Spirit  of  God  in  the  rational  testimony  of  our 
own  spirit,  to  observe,  that  in  this  text  the  apostle  is  so  far  from 
speaking  of  the  testimony  of  our  own  spirit  onli/,  that  it  may  be 
questioned  whether  he  speaks  of  it  at  all, — whether  he  docs  not  speak 
onh/  of  the  testimony  of  God's  Spirit.  It  does  not  appear  but  the 
original  text  may  be  fairly  understood  thus.  But  I  contend  not, 
seeing  so  many  other  texts,  with  the  experience  of  all  real  Christians, 
sufficiently  evince  that  there  is  in  every  believer  both  the  testimony 
of  God's  Spirit,  and  the  testimony  of  his  own  spirit,  that  he  is  the 
child  of  God.  —  Vol.  /.,  Serm.  X.,  head  I.  section  1,  p.  85. 

Again,  after  speaking  at  length  concerning  the  witness  of 
''our  spirit,''  he  says  : 

7.  But  what  is  that  testimony  of  God's  Spirit,  which  is  superadded 
to  and  conjoined  with  this?  How  does  he  "bear  witness  with  our 
spirit  that  we  are  the  children  of  God  ?"  It  is  hard  to  find  words  in 
the  language  of  men  to  explain  "the  deep  things  of  God."  Indeed, 
there  are  none  that  will  adequately  express  what  the  children  of  God 
experience.  But  perhaps  one  might  say  (desiring  any  who  are  taught 
of  God  to  correct,  to  soften,  or  strengthen  the  expression)  the  testi- 
mony of  the  Spirit  is  an  inward  impression  on  the  soul,  whereby  the 
Spirit  of  God  directly  witnesses  to  my  spirit  that  I  am  a  child  of  God; 
that  Jesus  Christ  hath  loved  me,  and  hath  given  himself  for  me  ;  and 
that  all  my  sins  are  blotted  out,  and  I,  even  I,  am  reconciled  to  God. 

9.  Then,  and  not  till  then — when  the  Spirit  of  God  beareth  that 
witness  to  our  spirit,  "God  hath  loved  thee,  and  given  his  own  Son  to 
be  the  propitiation  for  thy  sins ;  the  Son  of  God  hath  loved  thee,  and 
hath  washed  thee  from  thy  sins  in  his  blood" — "we  love  God,  because 
he  first  loved  us;"  and  for  his  sake,  we  love  our  brother  also.  And 
of  this  we  cannot  but  be  conscious  to  ourselves:  we  "Icnow  the  things 
that  are  freely  given  to  us  of  God."  We  know  that  we  love  God  and 
keep  his  commandments;  and  "hereby  also  we  know  that  we  are  of 
God."— /S'erw.  X.,  p.  87. 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  119 

Again : 

But  what  is  the  witness  of  the  Spirit?  The  original  word,  /naprvpta, 
may  be  rendered  either  (as  it  is  in  several  places)  the  witness,  or  ambi- 
guously, the  testimony,  or  the  record:  so  it  is  rendered  in  our  transla- 
tion, 1  John  V.  11,  "This  is  the  record,"  [the  testimony,  the  sum  of 
what  God  testifies  in  all  the  inspired  writings,]  "that  God  hath  given  to 
us  eternal  life,  and  this  life  is  in  his  Son."  The  testimony  now  under 
consideration  is  given  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  to  and  with  our  spirit: 
he  is  the  person  testifying.  What  he  testifies  to  us  is,  "that  we  are 
the  children  of  God." 

4.  Meantime,  let  it  be  observed,  I  do  not  mean  hereby  that  the 
Spirit  of  God  testifies  this  by  any  outward  voice:  no,  nor  always  by  an 
inward  voice,  although  he  may  do  this  sometimes.  Neither  do  I  sup- 
pose that  he  always  applies  to  the  heart  (though  he  often  may)  one 
or  more  texts  of  Scripture.  But  he  so  works  upon  the  soul  by  his 
immediate  influence,  and  by  a  strong  though  inexplicable  operation, 
that  the  stormy  wind  and  troubled  waves  subside,  and  there  is  a  sweet 
calm ;  the  heart  resting  as  in  the  arms  of  Jesus,  and  the  sinner  being 
clearly  satisfied  that  God  is  reconciled — that  all  his  "iniquities  are 
forgiven,  and  his  sins  covered." — Serm.  X.,  head  II.,  sections  1  and  4, 
p.  91. 

My  next  and  last  quotation  is  from  the  Eleventh  Sermon, 
fifth  head,  first  section,  and  ending  on  page  95.  It  is  in  these 
significant  words  : 

1.  The  sum  of  all  is  this :  the  testimony  of  the  Spirit  is  an  inward 
impression  on  the  souls  of  believers,  whereby  the  Spirit  of  God  directly 
testifies  to  their  spirit,  that  they  are  children  of  God.  And  it  is  not 
questioned  whether  there  is  a  testimony  of  the  Spirit,  but  whether 
there  is  any  direct  testimony — whether  there  is  any  other  than  that 
which  arises  from  a  consciousness  of  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit?  We 
believe  there  is ;  because  this  is  the  plain,  natural  meaning  of  the 
text,  illustrated  both  by  the  preceding  words,  and  by  the  parallel 
passage  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians ;  because,  in  the  nature  of 
things,  the  testimony  must  precede  the  fruit  which  springs  from  it ; 
and  because  this  plain  meaning  of  the  word  of  God  is  confirmed  by 
the  experience  of  innumerable  children  of  God ;  yea,  and  by  the 
experience  of  all  who  are  convinced  of  sin,  who  can  never  rest  till 
they  have  a  direct  witness ;  and  even  of  the  children  of  the  world, 
who,  not  having  the  witness  in  themselves,  one  and  all  declare  none 
can  hnoio  his  sins  forgiven. 

2.  And  whereas  it  is  objected,  that  experience  is  not  sufficient  to 
prove  a  doctrine  unsupported  by  Scripture  ;  that  madmen  and  enthu- 
siasts of  every  kind  have  imagined  such  a  witness ;  that  the  design 
of  that  witness  is  to  prove  our  profession  genuine,  which  design  it 
does  not  answer;  that  the  Scripture  says,  "  The  tree  is  known  by  its 


120  THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED. 

fruit;"  "examine  yourselves;  prove  your  ownselves;"  and,  mean- 
time, the  direct  witness  is  never  referred  to  in  all  the  book  of  (iod; 
that  it  does  not  secure  us  from  the  p;reatest  delusions ;  and  lastly, 
thnt  the  change  wrought  in  us  is  a  sufficient  testimony,  unless  in  such 
trials  as  Christ  alone  sutfered :  we  answer,  1.  Experience  is  sufficient 
to  confirm  a  doctrine  which  is  grounded  on  Scripture.  2.  Though 
many  fancy  they  experience  what  they  do  not,  this  is  no  prejudice  to 
rearexperience.  3.  The  design  of  that  witness  is,  to  assure  us  we 
are  children  of  God ;  and  this  design  it  does  answer.  4.  The  true 
witness  of  the  Spirit  is  known  by  its  fruit,  "love,  peace,  joy" — not 
indeed  preceding,  but  following  it.  5.  It  cannot  be  proved  that  the 
direct,  as  well  as  the  indirect  Avitness,  is  not  referred  to  in  that  very 
text — "  Know  ye  not  your  ownselves,  that  Jesus  Christ  is  in  you?" 
6.  The  Spirit  of  God,  witnessing  with  our  spirit,  does  secure  us  from 
all  delusion.  And  lastly,  we  are  all  liable  to  trials,  wherein  the  testi- 
mony of  our  own  spirit  is  not  sufficient;  wherein  nothing  less  than  the 
direct  testimony  of  God's  Spirit  can  assure  us  that  we  are  his  children. 

These  are  the  extracts  quoted  by  Mr.  Ross,  and  of  which 
he  says,  on  page  8  of  his  immaculate  production — 

I  hold  the  common  faith,  as  to  the  witness  of  the  Spirit,  as  it  stands 
in  the  Presbyterian  Confession,  and  as  it  ever  has  been  held  by  Pres- 
byterians in  all  their  branches,  by  Episcopalians  in  England  and 
America — as  it  has  been  taught  by  evangelical  Congregational,  by 
orthodox  Baptist  and  Lutheran  Churches. 

It  is  the  settled  faith  of  these  denominations  which  I  express  when 
I  aflSrm,  as  I  now  do,  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Direct  Witness  of  the 
Spirit,  as  taught  by  Mr.  Wesley,  is  unscriptueal,  false,  fanatical, 

AND  OF  MISCHIEVOUS  TENDENCY. 

Again,  on  page  35  of  this  same  Tract,  Mr.  Ross  thus  speaks 
of  the  doctrine  advanced  by  Mr.  "Wesley — a  doctrine  to  which 
every  Presbyterian,  Methodist,  Baptist,  Lutheran,  etc.,  in  this 
assembly  or  elsewhere,  who  has  any  religious  experience,  most 
heartily  subscribes : 

I  have  never  seen  Mr.  Wesley'' s  doctrine  of  the  Direct  Witness  affirmed 
ly  any  commentator  on  Romans  or  Oalatians,  or  anyiohere  else  in  the 
xoritings  of  evangelical  men,  save  in  the  works  of  Mr.  Wesley,  and  the 
teachers  who  follow  him — or  in  the  books  of  other  admitted  mystics. 

Now,  in  this  connection,  I  beg  leave  to  read  you  the  reso- 
lution of  the  notorious  Athens  Synod,  adopted  in  October, 
1846,  as  Mr.  Ross  boastingly  asserts,  with  ^'absolute  una- 


mm 


THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  121 

it!/" — that  is  to  say,  without  one  dissenting  voice.  I  read 
from  the  Calvinistic  Magazine.  The  resolution  is  in  these 
words  : 

Resolved,  that  in  the  estimation  of  Synod,  a  Tract  lately  published 
by  F.  A.  Ross,  entitled,  "The  Doctrine  of  the  Direct  Witness  of  the 
Spirit,  as  taught  by  Rev.  John  Wesley,  shown  to  hefal.<;e,  unscriptural, 
fanatical,  and  of  mischievous  tendency,  ^^  is  an  able  production,  setting 
forth  that  important  subject  in  its  true  scriptural  light,  and  is  ear- 
nestly recommended  to  the  pei-usal  of  all  the  members  of  our  Church. 

We  now  have  the  case  fairly  before  us;  and  I  shall  proceed 
to  convict  both  Mr.  Ross  and  the  members  of  this  Synod, 
either  of  wilful  falsehood  or  criminal  ignorance,  or  both. 

Now,  since  Mr.  Ross  and  his  Synod  profess  to  give  the 
views  of  the  several  denominations  mentioned,  let  us  examine 
iuto  the  correctness  of  their  pretensions.  And  first,  as  to  the 
Congregationalists.  They  are  so  called  from  the  fact  that 
they  reject  all  church  government,  except  that  of  a  single 
congregation,  under  the  direction  of  one  pastor,  with  their 
elders,  assistants,  or  managers — each  congregation  enacting 
its  own  laws  and  regulations.  They  are  Calvinists,  and  they 
are  a  denomination  of  Protestants  who  are  principally  confined 
to  the  New  England  States.  If  I  were  so  disposed,  I  could 
adduce  various  authorities  to  prove  that  Mr.  Ross  and  his 
Synod  have  grossly  misrepresented  the  Congregationalists 
upon  this  important  doctrine.  I  will,  however,  content  myself 
with  giving  you  a  few  brief  quotations  from  a  small  work  I 
hold  in  my  hand,  written  by  the  Rev.  Thomas  C.  Upham, 
Professor  of  Moral  and  Mental  Science  in  Bowdoin  College, 
ill  the  State  of  Maine.  Professor  Upham  is  an  acceptable 
minister  of  the  Congregational  Church,  extensively  known  as 
the  author  of  works  on  "The  Intellect,"  "The  Sensibilities,^' 
"The  Will/'  "The  Life  of  Faith,''  "Interior  Life,"  and  the 
work  I  hold  in  my  hand,  entitled,  "Religious  Experience." 
This  last  work  sets  forth  the  views  of  the  Congregationalists 


122  THB   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

upon  the  doctrino  of  the  Direct  Witness.  Most  of  his  other 
productions  are  now  adopted  as  text-books  in  many  colleges 
and  universities,  especially  those  under  the  control  of  his 
denomination.     On  page  7,  Professor  Upham  says  : 

If  I  know  nny  thing,  /  know  certainly  tliat  the  true  resting-place  of 
ray  soul  is  and  must  be  in  the  Infinite  Mind ;  that  it  is  not  and  cannot 
be  anywhere  else.  Perhaps  no  part  of  the  Scriptures,  during  the 
more  recent  periods  of  my  experience,  has  affected  me  more  than  the 
prayer  of  our  Saviour  for  his  disciples,  "That  they  all  may  be  one,  as 
thou,  Father,  art  in  me,  and  I  in  thee,  that  they  also  may  be  one 
in  us." 

On  page  8,  the  Professor  says,  in  speaking  of  the  necessity 
of  a  change  of  heart,  and  of  a  knowledge  of  that  change  on 
our  part : — 

"What  is  proof  of  the  attainment? — 1.  The  direct  witness  of  the 
Spirit.  ♦'  The  Spirit  itself  beareth  witness  with  our  spirit  that  we  are 
the  children  of  God."  "He  that  abideth  in  me  hath  the  witness  in  him- 
self:' 

2.  The  witness  of  our  own  spirit  that  our  tempers  and  acts  are  such 
as  the  word  of  God  requires. 

But,  says  this  Kingsport  gladiator,  I  speak  the  common 
faith  of  all  orthodox  Congregationalists  when  I  say,  as  I  now 
do,  that  this  doctrine  is  ^^  false,  unscriptural,''  etc.  And 
again,  he  declares,  as  cited  from  page  35,  that  he  never  has 
seen  this  doctrine  taught  by  any  evangelical  writer,  or  any 
commentator  on  Romans  or  Galatians,  save  in  the  writings  of 
John  Wesley  and  the  teachers  who  follow  him !  You  are 
right,  brother  Fred.,  exclaims  every  elder  and  preacher  in  the 
Athens  Synod :  you  are  right !  for  we  have  never  seen  or 
heard  tell  of  this  thing  in  all  the  course  of  our  event/id  lives  ! 

II.  As  to  the  Episcopalians,  they  hold  the  doctrine  of  the 
Direct  Witness  in  the  same  sense  in  which  it  is  held  by  Mr. 
"Wesley  and  the  Methodists.  This  fact  no  intelligent  man 
can  be  ignorant  of,  and  this  no  man  will  deny,  unless  he  is  as 
unscrupulous  a  liar  as  is  F.  A.  Ross,  or  the  members  of  the 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  123 

Athens  Synod !  Hear  the  following  extract  from  page  363 
of  Buck's  Theological  Dictionary,  under  the  caption  of  ^^Me- 
thodist Tenets:'^  and  bear  in  mind  that  Buck  is  a  Cahinist, 
and  not  a  follower  of  Wesley.     He  says  : — 

The  doctrines  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodists  are  the  same  as  the 
Church  of  England,  (the  Episcopalian  Church,)  as  set  forth  in  her 
liturgy,  articles,  and  homilies. 

What  will  this  audience  think  when  I  tell  them,  as  I  now 
do,  that  the  twenty-five  Articles  of  Religion  set  forth  in 
the  Methodist  Discipline,  by  Mr.  Wesley,  were  taken  from  the 
Creed  of  the  English  Episcopalians,  and  abridged  for  our 
convenience  ?  What  will  you  think  when  I  tell  you,  as  I  now 
do,  that  Mr.  Wesley  was  a  minister  of  the  English  Episcopal 
Church,  and  that  he  never  separated  therefrom  to  the  day  of 
his  death !  Don't  be  surprised,  for  these  are  the  facts  in  the 
case,  and  no  man  knew  them  better  than  the  anointed  slan- 
derer to  whom  I  am  this  day  replying.  The  members  of  the 
Synod  may  not  have  known  these  facts,  for  they  seem  to 
have  never  read  any  thing  but  the  productions  of  Boss's 
pen ! 

But  here  is  a  short  extract  from  a  volume  of  sermons  writ- 
ten and  published  by  the  Bev.  John  Hurrion  in  1729,  an 
able  minister  of  the  Episcopal  Church  : — 

The  malignant  opposition  made  to  him  (the  Holy  Spirit)  by  some, 
and  the  vile  contempt  cast  upon  him  by  others,  are  things  which  have 
quenched  and  grieved  him,  and  caused  him  to  depart  to  that  degree  as 
hereby  almost  all  vital  religion  is  lost  out  of  our  world.  Hence  it  is 
that  the  glory  of  God  in  Christ,  the  faith,  joy,  and  zeal  of  Christians, 
are  under  such  a  cloud  at  this  day.  Is  it  not,  then,  high  time  to 
speak  ? — Sermon  on  the  Holy  Spirit. 

I  repeat,  the  Methodists  and  Episcopalians  do  not  differ  in 
doctrine :  they  never  have.  We  differ  upon  the  subject  of 
Church  government,  the  subject  of  Episcopacy ,  that  of  Ordi- 
nation, the  authority  of  Presbyters,  the  Succession,  etc.,  etc. 


124       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

But  I  have  no  time  to  dwell  upon  these  topics,  or  to  consume 
time  in  fruitless  efforts  to  show  tiiat  the  order  of  bishops  and 
presbyters  is  one  and  the  same.  I  leave  such  men  as  Doctors 
Stillingfleet,  iMillcr,  and  Whitakcr,  and  Archbishops  Cranmer, 
Grindal,  and  Tillotson,  to  settle  these  controverted  points. 

III.  As  to  the  Lutherans,  for  the  very  reverse  of  what  Mr. 
Ross  has  asserted,  and  the  members  of  the  Athens  Synod  have 
sworn  to,  I  refer  this  assembly  to  Moslieim^s  Ecclesiastical 
Histori/,  and  to  Martin  Luther's  Commentary  on  Galatians, 
a  work,  by  the  way,  which  Mr.  Ross  and  his  synodical  under- 
strappers declared  they  never  heard  of ! 

Forty-one  propositions,  extracted  out  of  Luther's  works, 
by  order  of  Pope  Leo,  were  condemned  as  heretical,  scan- 
dalous, and  offensive  to  pious  ears ;  and  all  persons  were  for- 
bidden to  read  his  writings  upon  pain  of  death.  One  of  these 
propositions  was  that  asserting  the  direct  influence  of  God's 
Spirit  in  cojiverting  the  soul,  a  doctrine  to  which  the  Church 
of  Rome  never  did  subscribe.  These  facts  are  known  to  every 
reading  and  intelligent  man  and  woman  in  this  assembly. 
But  especially  are  they  known  to  the  members  of  the  Luthe- 
ran Church,  several  of  whom  I  have  the  pleasure  to  address 
on  this  occasion. 

In  further  proof  of  what  I  assert,  I  could  quote  the  Life 
of  Luther,  Hawics'  Church  History,  and  the  second  volume 
of  the  History  of  Charles  V.  When  I  see  to  what  extreme 
meanness  this  man  Ross  and  his  synodical  associates  have  re- 
sorted to  injure  the  Methodist  Church,  I  can  scarcely  avoid 
an  excess  of  acrimony  and  vehemence  in  the  delivery  of  this 
address. 

IV.  As  it  relates  to  the  Baptists,  they  are,  of  all  the  de- 
nominations named,  the  farthest  from  denying  the  truth  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  Direct  Witness.  Are  there  any  Baptists  in 
this  assembly?  I  am  answered,  yes;  and  I  am  glad  to  hear 
the  response.     I  hope  you  will  listen  to  me — not  that  I  wish 


THE   GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED.  125 

to  enlist  you  on  our  side  of  this  controversy,  but  because  I 
wish  you  to  see  how  you  are  misrepresented,  ay,  even  slan- 
dered. You  may  resent,  or  you  may  submit :  we  Methodists 
can  fight  our  own  battles,  and  we  intend  to  do  it. 

The  Baptists  teach  that  no  man  is  a  Christian,  entitled  to 
membership  in  their  Church,  or  a  fit  subject  for  immersion, 
until  he  has  the  direct  witness  of  God's  Spirit  in  the  work 
of  regeneration.  To  prove  this,  I  have  the  authorities  of 
^^  Rippon's  Baptist  Register,"  "  Evans's  Sketch  of  Religious 
Denominations,'^  and  '^Adams's  View  of  Religions."  But  I 
lay  all  these  aside,  and  appeal  to  the  sense  of  this  assembly. 
Does  not  every  one  here  know  that  the  Baptists  carry  this 
matter  farther  than  even  the  Methodists  do  ?  They  will  not 
receive  a  member  into  their  Church  until  he  has  this  direct 
witness— ViXiiW  he  can  tell  where,  when,  and  liow  God,  for 
Christ's  sake,  pardoned  his  sins  !  And  as  to  plunging  one  of 
you  into  this  river  here  on  my  back,  a  Baptist  preacher  would 
not  touch  you  with  a  ten-foot  pole,  unless  you  testify  your 
belief  in  the  doctrine.  And  yet  Ross  and  the  Synod  say 
they  teach  the  common  faith  of  all  orthodox  Baptists  when 
they  say  the  doctrine  is  ^'  false,  fanatical,  unscriptural,  and  of 
devilish  tendency !" 

V.  But  I  proceed  now  to  examine  the  faith  of  the  Presby- 
terians on  this  important  but  controverted  point.  And  now 
for  it,  ladies  !  now  for  it,  gentlemen  !  I  hope  to  have  your 
undivided  attention,  as  I  have  had  thus  far,  for  I  propose  to 
make  out  a  stronger  case  against  Mr.  Ross  and  his  Synod  in 
this  case  than  I  have  done  in  any  of  the  denominational 
cases  just  disposed  of ;  and  I  shall  rely  alone  upon  Presbyte- 
rian authorities — I  may  say,  upon  the  very  authors  cited  by 
Mr.  Ross  in  his  love-letter  to  me,  and  in  whom  he  says  he 
believes,  and  by  whom  he  says  he  swears  ! 

The  Rev.  Matthew  Poole,  of  England,  an  eminent  Pres 
byterian  minister,  more  than  one  hundred  years  ago,  wrote 


126       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

and  published  a  Commentary  on  the  Scriptures;   and  in  ex- 
planation of  this  same  text  in  llomaus  says : — 

The  Spirit  of  adoption  doth  not  only  excite  us  to  call  upon  God  as 
our  Father,  but  it  doth  ascertain  and  assure  us  (as  before)  that  we 
are  his  children ;  and  this  it  doth  not  by  an  outward  voice,  as  God  the 
Father  to  Jesus  Christ,  nor  by  an  angel,  as  to  Daniel  and  the  Virr/in 
Man/,  but  by  an  inward  and  secret  suggestion,  whereby  he  raiseth 
our  hearts  to  this  persuasion,  that  God  is  our  Father  and  we  are  his 
children.  This  is  not  the  testimony  of  the  graces  and  alterations  of  the 
Spirit,  but  of  the  Spirit  itself. 

The  Rev.  John  Brown,  a  Presbyterian  divine  of  Scotland, 
published  a  body  of  divinity  just  one  hundred  years  ago,  and 
among  other  works  a  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  in  which,  under 
the  head  ^^Spirit,''  he  says  : — 

The  third  person  in  the  Godhead  is  particularly  called  Holy  Spirit 
orlloly  Ghost,  to  express  the  mode  of  his  relation  to  the  Father  and 
Son,  and  because  he,  by  spiritual  methods,  works  spiritual  qualities 
and  affections  in  us.  He  is  the  Spirit  of  adoption,  that  brings  us  into 
the  family  of  God,  dwells  in  every  one  of  God's  children,  and  renders 
them  conformable  to  his  image.  (Rom.  viii.  15.)  He  is  said  to  bo 
sent,  because  authorized  by  the  Father  and  Son — (John  xvi.  7) — to  be 
given,  because  freely  bestowed  in  his  person,  gifts,  and  graces — (John 
vii.  39) — and  poured  out,  because  carefully  and  plentifully  bestowed. 
They  that  are  joined  to  the  Lord  are  one  spirit,  Christ  and  they  have 
the  same  Holy  Ghost  dwelling  in  them,  and  they  are  conformed  to  him 
in  the  gracious  temper  of  their  soul. 

Rev.  John  Flavel,  of  England,  a  distinguished  Presby- 
terian minister,  on  page  167  of  his  Whole  Works  has  a  ser- 
mon on  the  text,  ^^And  you  hath  he  quickened,  who  were  dead 
in  trespasses  and  sins,"  in  which  he  says  : — 

Then  do  we  begin  to  live  when  we  begin  to  have  union  with  Christ, 
the  fountain  of  life,  by  his  Spirit  communicated  to  us. 

The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  poured  out  upon  us,  to  quicken  us  with  the 
new  spiritual  life  :  it  gives  us  an  ease  supernatural,  a  new  supernatural 
being,  which  is  therefore  called  a  new  creature. 

The  Spirit,  who  is  God  by  nature,  dwells  in  and  actuates  the  soul 
■whom  he  regenerates,  and,  by  sanctifying,  causes  it  to  live  a  divine 
life. 

None  can  make  another  by  any  words  to  understand  what  that 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  127 

pleasure  is  which  the  renewed  sonl  feels  diffused  through  all  its  faculties 
and  aflFections  in  its  communion  with  the  Lord,  and  in  the  scalings  and 
witnessings  of  his  Spirit. 

President  Edwards,  the  head  and  front  of  Presbyterian- 
ism  in  his  day,  speaking  of  the  great  revival  in  New  England 
in  the  year  1734,  and  in  defence  of  the  enthusiasm  of  tho 
subjects  of  that  revival,  says  : — 

Such  extraordinary  external  effects  of  inward  impressions  have  not 
only  been  found  in  here  and  there  a  single  person,  but  there  have  also 
been  times  wherein  many  have  been  thus  affected.  So  it  was  in  the 
year  1625,  in  the  west  of  Scotland,  in  a  time  of  a  great  outpouring 
of  the  Spirit  of  God.  It  was  a  frequent  thing  for  many  to  be  so  ex- 
traordinarily seized  with  terror  in  hearing  of  the  word,  by  the  Spirit 
of  God  convincing  them  of  sin,  that  they  fell  down  and  were  carried 
out  of  the  church,  who  afterwards  proved  most  solid  and  lively  Christ- 
ians. There  have  been  instances  of  persons  crying  out  in  transports 
of  divine  joy  in  New  England.  There  has,  before  now,  been  both 
crying  out  and  falling  down  in  this  town,  (Northampton,)  under 
awakenings  of  conscience,  and  in  the  pangs  of  the  new  birth,  and  also 
in  some  of  the  neighboring  towns.  In  one  of  them,  more  than  seven 
years  ago,  was  a  great  number  together  that  cried  out  and  fell  down 
under  convictions,  in  most  of  which,  by  good  information,  was  a  hope- 
ful and  abiding  issue. — Edwards  on  Revivals,  p.  126,  and  onward. 

Dr.  Scott,  an  Episcopalian,  approved  by  Presbyterians,  in 
commenting  upon  this  very  text  of  Mr.  Wesley,  says  : — 

The  Holy  Spirit,  by  producing  in  believers  the  affections  which  duti- 
ful children  bear  to  a  wise  and  good  father,  attests  their  adoption  into 
his  family :  while  they  are  examining  themselves  concerning  the  re- 
ality of  their  conversion,  and  find  scriptural  evidence  of  it,  the  Holy 
Spirit  shines  on  his  own  work,  excites  their  holy  affections,  and  thus 
puts  the  matter  beyond  doubt.  This  witness  is  borne  along  with  that 
(witness)  of  our  own  consciences,  not  without  it,  nor  against  it. 

Rev.  Matthew  Henry,  a  Presbyterian  minister  of  dis- 
tinction, referred  to  by  Mr.  Ross,  in  a  sermon  on  this  text, 
says  :— 

They  that  are  sanctified  have  God/s  Spirit,  witnessing  with  their  spirits 
that  they  are  the  children  of  God ;  and  in  this  ^A^y  CANNOT  as  they  ought 
NOT  to  be  deceived. 


128  THE    GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

Dr.  Doddridge,  ouo  of  oNIr.  Ross's  favorites,  says,  in  a 
sermon  on  this  same  text  in  llomans  : — 

So  he,  the  Spirit  himself,  by  his  internal  and  gracious  OPERATioys, 
heareth  witness  with  the  answer  of  our  spirits,  that  ice  are  the  child- 
ren OF  GOD. 

And  still  Mr.  Ross  afBrms  that  he  never  saw  any  such  say- 
ings as  the  foregoing  in  the  writings  of  any  commentator  on 
Romans  or  Galatians,  or  anywhere  else  in  the  writings  of 
any  evangelical  men,  save  those  of  "Wesley  and  the  leaders 
who  follow  him.  The  Synod  at  Athens,  ^'with  absolute  una- 
nimity," say  that  they  are  as  ignorant  as  Ross  is — that  they 
never  read  the  standard  authors  of  their  own  Church  ! 

But,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  will  trouble  you  with  two 
other  authorities  upon  this  point,  before  I  dismiss  the  sub- 
ject; and  this  I  do  more  for  the  purpose  of  showing  up  the 
ridiculous  position  of  Ross  and  his  synod,  than  with  a  view 
to  instruct  or  edify  you.  These  two  authorities  are  also 
Presbyterian,  and  they  are  ^^ evangelicaV  to  all  intents  and 
purposes.  The  first  is  the  Presbyterian  Confession  of  Faith 
• — alias,  the  "Arabian  Nights'  Entertainments"  —  an  old- 
fashioned  work,  truly  abounding  with  all  the  extravagance 
of  Eastern  hyperbole  !  Here  it  is,  the  old  Saybrook  platform 
— a  real  old  Calvinian  74-pounder!  Face  up,  witness,  to  Ross 
and  his  synod,  who  in  your  eyes  must  be  worse  than  infidels, 
for  they  have  denied  the  faith ! 

On  page  77  of  the  Confession,  chap,  xviii.,  treating  of 
"  The  Assurance  of  Grace  and  Salvation,"  this  venerable  old 
platform  says  : 

Although  hypocrites  and  other  unregencratc  me?}  may  vainly  deceive 
themselves  Tvith  false  hopes  and  carnal  presumptions  of  being  in  the 
favor  of  God  and  estate  of  salvation,  which  hope  of  theirs  shall 
perish,  yet  such  as  truly  believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  love  him  in 
sincerity,  endeavoring  to  walk  in  all  good  conscience  before  him,  mat/, 
in  this  life,  be  certainly  assured  that  th^y  are  in  a  stote  of  grace,  and  may 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  129 

rejoice  in  the  hope  of  the  glory  of  God,  which  hope  shall  never  make 
them  ashamed. 

II.  This  certainty  is  not  a  bare  conjectural  and  probable  persuasion, 
grounded  upon  a  fallible  hope,  but  aninfallible  assurance  of  faith,  founded 
upon  the  divine  truth  of  the  promises  of  salvation,  the  inward  evi- 
dence of  those  graces  unto  which  these  promises  are  made,  the  tes- 
timony of  the  Spirit  of  adoption  witnessing  uiih  our  spirits  that  we  are  the 
children  of  God,  which  Spirit  is  the  earnest  of  our  inheritance,  whereby 
we  are  sealed  to  the  day  of  redemption. 

Here  it  will  be  seen  that  the  Confession,  in  urging  this 
doctrine  of  the  Direct  Witness,  says  that  ''hypocrites  and 
other  unregenerate  men" — such  as  Ross  and  the  members  of 
the  Athens  synod — may  vainly  deceive  themselves  with  false 
topes,  but  declares  that  their  hopes  shall  perish!  And  in 
quoting  Scripture  to  prove  its  position  upon  the  Direct  Wit- 
ness, it  is  remarkable  that  the  Confession  cites  Mr.  "Wesley's 
text :  "  The  Spirit  itself  beareth  witness  with  our  spirits,  that 
we  are  the  children  of  God  V 

The  next  authority  we  offer  is  from  the  second  volume  of 
the  Calvinistic  Magazine,  published  in  Rogersville,  in  1828.  It 
is  from  a  printed  sermon  on  "  The  Proofs  of  our  Religion,'' 
in  which  it  is  declared  and  proven  that  a  man  denying  this 
doctrine  of  the  Direct  Witness  is  a  hypocrite,  or  has  no 
religion.  Who  do  you  suppose  delivered  this  sermon,  and 
superintended  its  publication?  Frederick  Augustus  Ross! 
Yes,  Mr.  Ross  thus  preached  twenty  years  ago.  I  will  only 
trouble  you  with  the  following  extract,  found  on  page  360  of 
the  volume  I  hold  in  my  hand  : 

And  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  [or  Direct  Witness]  is  wonderfully 
adapted  to  affect  the  heart;  for  in  the  Scriptures  it  is  never  mentioned 
as  a  mere  fact,  in  which  our  affections  are  not  concerned,  but  is  always 
brought  before  us  in  connection  with  the  glorious  work  of  redemption. 
There  we  are  told  of  the  Father's  unspeakable  love  in  the  gift  of  his 
Son ;  of  the  Son's  obedience  even  unto  the  death  of  the  cross ;  of  the 
Hall/  Spirit,  coming  in  love,  sent  hy  the  Father  and  the  Son,  to  regenerate 
the  sinner,  and  to  purify,  to  enlighten,  to  give  peace  and  joy  to  the  believer. 
There  is,  therefore,  a  moral  meaning  in  the  Trinity.  A  man  then 
must  FEEL  Jiis  heart  overflowing  with  love  to  God  the  Father  for  the 

6* 


130       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

gift  of  his  Sou.  He  must  feel  that  tlie  Holy  Ghost  is  present, 
APPLYING  THESE  TRi'THs  TO  JiiH  HEART,  bcforc  hc  cau  kuow  the  mean- 
ing of  the  Trinity,  [or  Direct  Witness.]  No  man  ever  did  believe  in 
the  meaning  of  this?  doctrine  who  was  a  stranger  to  the  feelings  I  have 
described,  and  no  man  ever  denied  tue  doctrine  whose  soul  was 

FILLED  WITH  THESE  AFFECTIONS. 

This  was  the  doctrine  Mr.  Ross  preached  twenty  years  ago. 
And  why?  Because  he  solemnly  swore,  when  he  was 
ordained  a  minister,  that  he  would  preach  and  defend  this, 
and  every  other  doctrine  taught  in  the  Confession.  And 
these  ministers  seated  behind  me  know,  and  will  tell  you, 
that  they  regard  the  ordination  vow  of  a  clergyman  as  more 
solomn,  and  even  more  binding,  than  any  oath  administered 
by  a  justice  of  the  peace.  Twenty  years  ago,  then,  Mr.  Ross 
sicorc  that  he  believed  this  doctrine  of  the  Direct  Witness^ 
and  would  preach  and  defend  it.  Rut  two  years  ago,  in  this 
same  town  of  Rogersville,  on  the  Lord's  day,  before  a  large 
assembly,  in  a  sermon  against  this  doctrine,  he  held  up  his 
right  hand,  and  bringing  it  down  to  the  board,  sivore,  "  This 
doctrine  of  the  Direct  Witness  is  false,  fanatical,  un scriptu- 
ral, and  of  mischievous  tendency,  SO  HELP  ME  GOD  I" 
And  in  October  of  the  same  year  he  induced  an  entire  synod 
to  swear  the  same  false  oath,  and  to  perjure  themselves  in  the 
sight  of  high  Heaven! 

Ladies  and  gentlemen  I  You  now  begin  to  see,  even  if  it 
be  '^through  a  glass,  darkly,'^  ichy  it  is  that  Mr.  Ross  has  not 
met  me  at  this  place  to-day,  as  was  expected,  and  even  desired, 
by  his  friends,  if  they  were  sincere  in  their  professions.  Be- 
fore I  am  through  I  intend  you  to  see — if  not  "face  to  face," 
which  cannot  be  in  his  absence — but  I  intend  you  to  see  as 
clear  as  a  sunbeam,  the  reason  of  his  non-appearance.  It  is 
not  because  I  am  beneath  his  notice — no,  he  tells  me  other- 
wise in  this  beautiful  letter  of  his,  just  read  in  your  hearing. 
Besides,  he  knows,  and  his  friends  know,  that  I  stand  fair  in 
my  own  Church;   that  I  am  recognized  by  the  Church  to 


THE    GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  131 

which  I  belong  as  a  local  elder  in  good  standing.  He  knows, 
and  so  do  his  friends,  that  although  I  commenced  my  review 
of  the  man  and  his  writings  upon  my  own  hook,  still  my 
Church  recognizes  me  as  a  true  exponent  of  her  principles  in 
a  controversy  with  Mr.  Ross.  And  you  all  know  that  if  the 
Methodist  Church  is  worthy  of  being  put  down,  she  ought  to 
be  demolished  through  her  aclcnoicl edged  organs^  and  in  no 
other  way  can  she  be  demolished. 

I  am,  no  doubt,  safe  in  saying  that  President  Collins  never 
would  have  condescended  to  meet  F.  A.  Ross  in  discussion, 
but  for  the  fact  that  he  was,  and  still  is,  the  acknowledged 
organ  of  the  New  School  Presbyterian  Church  in  all  this 
country.  Mr.  Ross,  of  himself,  is  a  low-bred,  false-hearted, 
adulterous,  and  unprincipled  free  negro,  unworthy  of  the 
notice  of  the  high  standing  and  literary  rank  of  the  Presi- 
dent of  Emory  and  Henry  College;  but  on  account  of  the 
Church  which  puts  him  forth,  and  backs  him,  he  is  entitled 
to  notice. 

Now,  in  the  very  worst  aspect  of  the  case,  I  am  not  more 
degraded  than  is  the  sahle  leader  of  the  Presbyterian  Church; 
and  on  account  of  my  relation  to  the  Methodist  Church,  I  too 
am  entitled  to  notice.  So  you  all  think,  by  nodding  your 
assent.  Why,  then,  is  your  champion  not  here?  Because 
he  dared  not  attend.  He  would  stick  his  head  in  the  fire 
before  he  would  meet  me  in  the  presence  of  such  a  crowd  as 
this,  and  have  me  brand  him  with  falsehood,  forgery,  slander, 
and  adultery,  as  I  would  do,  and  make  him  submit  to  it! 
Yes,  if  he  were  in  this  stand  behind  me,  I  would  turn  upon 
him,  as  Nathan  did  upon  David,  and  staring  him  full  in  the 
face,  I  would  tell  him.  Sir,  thou  art  the  man  ! 

The  depravity  op  the  man! — Under  this  head,  ladies 
and  gentlemen,  I  propose,  in  a  very  brief  manner,  to  exhibit 
some  proofs  of  the  deep,  dark,  and  damning  depravity  of 


132  THE   GREAT   IRON    ^YIIEEL   EXAMINED. 

this  man  Koss.  The  followiup;  passage  against  the  doctrine 
of  the  Direct  ^yitncss  occurs  in  the  writings  of  Dr.  Chal- 
mers, one  of  the  most  pious,  eloquent,  and  celebrated  Pres- 
byterian divines  of  Scotland — a  gentleman  who  departed  this 
life  twelve  months  ago,  at  the  advanced  age  of  70  years.  In 
this  passage,  Dr.  Chalmers  presents  the  argument  of  the 
infidel  objector  to  this  doctrine,  atid  so  states  the  case  himself, 
but  Ross  has  neither  the  manliness  nor  the  moral  honesty  to 
tell  this.     Chalmers  says  : 

Does  not  this  doctrine  of  a  revelation  of  the  Spirit,  it  may  be  asked, 
additional  to  the  revelation  of  the  Word,  open  a  door  to  the  most  un- 
bridled variety?  May  it  not  give  a  sanction  to  any  conceptions  of  any 
visionary  pretenders,  and  clothe  in  all  the  authority  of  inspiration  a 
set  of  doctrines  not  to  be  found  within  the  compass  of  the  written 
record?  Does  it  not  set  aside  the  usefulness  of  the  Bible,  and  break 
in  upon  the  unity  and  consistency  of  revealed  truth,  by  letting  loose 
upon  the  world  a  succession  o^  fancies  as  endless  and  as  variable  as  are 
the  caprices  of  the  human  imagination? 

a^^  In  reply  J  Dr.  Chalmers  says  : 

All  very  true,  did  we  pretend  that  the  office  of  the  Spirit  was  to 
reveal  any  thing  additional  to  the  information,  whether  in  the  way  of 
doctrine  or  of  dulij,  vrhich  the  Bible  sets  before  us.  But  his  ofl5ce,  as 
defined  by  the  Bible  itself,  is  not  to  make  known  to  us  any  truths  which 
are  not  contained  in  the  Bible,  but  to  make  clear  to  our  understandings 
the  truths  which  are  contained  in  it.  He  opens  our  understandings  to 
understand  the  Scriptures.  The  word  of  God  is  called  the  Sword  of 
the  Spirit.  It  is  the  instrument  by  which  the  Spirit  worketh.  He 
does  not  tell  us  any  thing  that  is  out  of  the  record,  but  all  that  is 
within  it  he  sends  home  with  clearness  and  effect  upon  the  mind. — Chal- 
mers's Works,  p.  126, 

Again  : 

It  is  surely  not  necessary  that  the  Spirit  add  any  thing  to  the  truth 
of  God's  omniscience,  as  it  is  put  down  in  the  written  record.  It  will 
be  enough  that  he  gives  to  the  mind  upon  which  he  operates  a  steady 
and  enduring  impression  of  this  truth. — Ibid,  p.  127. 

Again,  speaking  of  an  unregenerate  man,  he  says : 

Only  grant  us  the  undeniable  truth,  that  he  may  understand  how 
he  cannot  discern  the  things  of  the  Spirit  unless  the  Spirit  reveal  them 
to  him;  and  yet  with  this  understanding,  he  may  not  be  one  of  those 
in  behalf  of  whom  the  Spirit  hath  actually  interposed  with  his  pecu- 
liar office  of  revelation. — Ibid,  p.  125. 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  133 

In  these  last  repeated  extracts,  Dr.  Chalmers  goes  on  to 
teach  and  vindicate  the  Direct  Witness — not  only  so,  but  he 
overturns  the  arguments  of  these  infidel  objectors.  All  this 
Ross  understood  perfectly.  But  the  fraudj  nay,  the  forgery 
he  perpetrates  with  malice  aforethought,  and,  as  I  believe, 
being  instigated  by  the  Devil,  and  not  having  the  fear  of  God 
before  his  eyes ! 

My  audience !  the  man  who  would  do  this  thing  is  not  too 
good  to  forge  a  note  of  hand  upon  his  neighbor  for  $100,  one 
day  after  date !  He  is  not  too  good  to  utter  a  lie,  too !  He 
is  prepared  for  "treason,  stratagem,  and  spoils;" — and  that 
man  is  F.  A.  Ross,  the  leader  and  champion  of  New  School 
Presbyterianism ! 

Mr.  Wesley,  in  his  Works,  declares  that  at  the  time  he 
began  to  raise  up  his  societies  in  London,  ^^  vital  religion  icas 
well-nigh  lost  and  forgotten."  This  statement  Mr.  Ross 
declares  to  be  one  of  boasting  and  lying,  and  in  saying  that, 
the  Synod  of  East  Tennessee  affirms  that  he  told  the  truth, 
according  to  the  Scriptures ! 

Here  is  what  Dr.  Watts  says  in  his  ^^ Preface  to  An  Humble 
Attempt  to  revive  Vital  Religion,"  in  1735 : 

Among  the  papers  published  last  year,  there  hath  been  some  inquiry 
made  whether  there  be  any  decay  in  the  "dissenting"  interest,  and 
what  may  have  been  supposed  to  have  been  the  occasion  of  it.  So 
far  as  I  have  searched  into  that  matter,  I  have  been  informed  that 
whatsoever  decrease  may  have  appeared  in  some  places,  there  have 
been  sensible  advances  in  others.  And  without  entering  into  any 
debate  about  the  particular  reason  of  its  declension  in  any  town 
whatsoever,  I  am  well  satisfied  that  the  great  and  general  reason  is 

THE  DECAY  OF  VITAL   RELIGION  IN  THE  HEARTS  AND  LIVES  OF  MEN;    and 

the  little  success  which  the  ministrations  of  the  gospel  have  had  of 
late  for  the  conversion  of  sinners  to  holiness,  and  the  recovery  of 
them  from  the  state  of  corrupt  nature  and  the  course  of  this  world, 
to  the  life  of  God  by  Jesus  Christ. — Nor  is  the  complaint  of  the  de- 
clension of  virtue  and  piety  made  only  by  the  Protestant  dissenters. 
It  is  a  general  matter  of  mournful  observation  among  all  that  lay  the 
cause  of  God  to  heart,  and  therefore  it  cannot  be  thought  amiss  for 
every  one  to  use  all  just  and  proper  eflforts  for  the  recovery  of  dying 
religion  in  the  world. 


134  THE   GREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

From  Buck's  Theological  Dictionary,  page  369,  under  the 
head  'Olethodists/'  I  take  the  following: 

At  the  time  this  society  was  formed,  it  was  said  that  the  whole 
kingdom  of  England  was  tending  fixst  to  infidelity.  "It  is  come," 
tJ.iys  Bishop  Butler,  "1  know  not  how,  to  be  taken  for  granted  by 
many  persons,  that  Christianity  is  not  so  much  as  a  sulycct  of  inquiry, 
but  that  it  is  now  at  length  discovered  to  be  fictitious;  and  accord- 
ingl}-  tlioy  treat  it  as  if,  in  the  present  age,  this  were  an  agreement 
among  all  people  of  discernment,  and  nothing  remained  but  to  set  it 
up  as  a  principal  subject  of  mirth  and  ridicule,  as  it  were,  by  way  of 
reprisal  for  its  having  so  long  interrupted  the  pleasures  of  the  world." 
There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  Methodists  were  the  instru- 
ments in  stemming  this  torrent.  The  sick  and  the  poor  also  tasted 
the  fruits  of  their  labors  and  benevolence:  Mr.  Wesley  abridged  him- 
self of  all  his  superfluities,  and  proposed  a  fund  for  the  relief  of  the 
indigent;  and  so  prosperous  was  the  scheme,  that  they  quickly 
increased  their  fund  to  eighty  pounds  per  annum. 

In  Watson's  Life  of  Wesley,  an  author  quoted  by  Mr.  Koss, 
page  62,  I  find  the  following: 

A  more  striking  instance  of  the  rapid  deterioration  of  religious  light 
and  influence  in  a  country  scai'cely  occurs,  than  in  our  own,  from  the 
Restoration  till  the  rise  of  Methodism.  It  aflFected  not  only  the  Church, 
but  the  dissenting  sects,  in  no  ordinary  degree.  The  Presbyterians 
had  commenced  their  course  through  Arianism  down  to  Socinianism; 
and  those  who  held  the  doctrines  of  Calvin  had,  in  too  many  instances, 
by  a  course  of  hot-house  planting,  luxuriated  them  into  the  fatal  and 
disgusting  errors  of  Antinornianism,  There  were,  indeed,  many  happy 
exceptions;  but  this  was  the  general  state  of  religion  and  morals 
in  the  country,  when  the  Wesleys,  Whitefield,  and  a  few  kindred 
spirits  came  forth,  ready  to  sacrifice  ease,  reputation,  and  even  life 
itself,  to  produce  a  reformation. 

And  now,  my  audience,  in  further  proof  of  what  Mr.  Wes- 
ley has  said  about  the  morals  of  Europe,  and  by  way  of  cer- 
tificate for  the  morality  of  Presbyterianism,  1  beg  leave  to 
cite  the  testimony — not  of  a  Methodist,  or  a  Baptist,  or  a 
Lutheran,  or  an  Episcopalian,  but  of  the  whole  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Scotland,  met  in  General  Assembly.  Let  not  this 
audience,  and  the  few  spies  sent  here  to  take  notes  of  what 
T  say,  charge  that  I  am  slandering  the  Presbyterians  of 
Scotland  —  the  witnesses   are  the  united    Fathers   of  their 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  135 

Church.     In  the  preamble  to  an  act  of  their  Assembly,  passed 
in  the  year  1578,  it  is  openly  set  forth  that 

The  General  Assembly  of  the  Kirk  finding  universal  corruption  of 
the  whole  estates  of  the  body  of  the  realm,  the  great  coldness  and 
slackness  in  religion  in  the  greatest  part  of  the  professors  of  the  same, 
with  the  daily  increase  of  all  kind  of  fearful  sins  and  enormities,  as 
incests,  adulteries,  murders,  (committed  in  Edinburgh  and  Stirling,) 
cursed  sacrilege,  ungodly  sedition  and  division  within  the  bowels  of 
the  realm,  with  all  manner  of  disordered  and  ungodly  living,  etc.  etc. 

In  1648,  just  two  hundred  years  ago,  and  coming  down 
more  nearly  to  Mr.  Wesley's  time,  the  General  Assembly 
again  testifies  to  the  state  of  Presbyterian  morality  in  Scot- 
land. I  read  from  ''  Breckenridge  and  Hughes's  Discussion,'' 
page  397.     The  Assembly  says  : 

Ignorance  of  God,  and  of  his  Son  Jesus  Christ,  prevailed  exceed- 
ingly in  the  land:  that  it  were  impossible  to  reckon  up  all  the  abomi- 
nations that  were  in  the  land;  and  that  the  blaspheming  of  the  name 
of  God,  swearing  by  the  creatures,  profanation  of  the  Lord's  day, 
uncleanliness,  excess  and  rioting,  vanity  of  apparel,  lying  and  deceit, 
railing  and  cursing,  arbitrary  and  uncontrolled  oppression,  and  gi-ind- 
ing  the  faces  of  the  poor  by  landlords,  and  others  in  places  of  power, 
were  become  ordinary  and  common  sins. 

The  testimony  of  the  Associate  Synod  of  Scotland,  as  late 
as  the  year  1778,  and  coming  down  to  3Ir.  Wesley's  time,  is 
of  the  following  import : 

A  general  unbelief  of  revealed  religion  (prevails)  among  the  higher 
orders  of  our  countrymen,  which  hath,  b}'  a  necessary  consequence, 
produced,  in  vast  numbers,  an  absolute  indifference  as  to  what  they 
believe,  either  concerning  truth  or  duty,  any  further  than  it  may 
comport  with  their  worldly  views. 

But  the  question  under  consideration  here  is  not  whether 
Presbyterians  were,  or  were  not,  in  those  days,  less  moral 
than  other  denominations,  which  seems  to  have  been  the  fact, 
themselves  being  witnesses — but  is  whether  or  not  Mr.  Wesley 
lied,  as  charged  by  Ross  and  the  Athens  synod,  when  he  said,  as 
he  did,  that  ^^  vital  religion^^  was  becoming  extinct  in  the 
whole  kingdom  of  England,  when  he  began  to  raise  up  his 


136  THE    OREAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED. 

societies.  I  have  shown,  by  testimony  that  no  court  or  jury 
can  reject,  that  Mr.  lloss  is  the  liar,  and  that  his  synodical 
associates  are  the  slanderers.  Among  these  is  your  pastor, 
Mr.  Palmer,  as  painful  as  it  may  be  to  some  of  you  to  have 
his  name  used  in  this  connection.  The  only  apology  I  can 
oflfer  for  the  synod  is,  that  its  sayings  and  doings  were  eter- 
nally, omnipotent!}',  and  immutably  ^^ forfordaincd.'* 

Mr.  Ross  and  his  synod,  by  partisan  blaspheming,  and  by 
their  malignant  abuse,  have  compelled  me  to  enter  into  this 
oral  disputation,  as  well  as  the  one  we  are  carrying  on  through 
the  medium  of  the  press.  I  have  already  taught  them  a  few 
facts  respecting  their  religion,  as  well  as  mine,  with  which 
they  seem  to  have  been  unacquainted  before.  And  before  I 
am  done  with  these  shameless  traducers,  I  will  make  them 
ashamed  of  themselves,  if  their  foreheads  are  not  petrified, 
and  impervious  to  a  hlush! 

On  page  87  of  Mr.  Ross's  slanderous  "  Tract,''  you  will 
find  the  extract  I  now  read  you,  commencing  after  a /«/^  stoj), 
and  winding  up  with  a  period.  I  wish  you  to  listen  to  it 
attentively,  and  recollect  its  charge  and  sentiment,  as  upon 
this  paragraph  I  found  the  charge  of  wilful  lying  and  malig- 
nant slander,  both  against  Mr.  Ross  and  the  synod.  Listen 
to  the  base  and  infamous  libel  : 

I  beg,  in  this  connection,  to  say  that  all  my  Sivedenborgian  quota- 
tions are  from  Mr.  Wesley's  "Thoughts  on  the  Writings  of  13aron 
Swedenborg."  (Vol.  vii.  p.  426,  etc.)  And  that  it  is  remarkable  Mr. 
Wesley  nowhere  challenges  Swedenborg's  claim  to  vl'^ion,  but 

RATHER  seems  TO  ADMIT  IT !  ! 

Now,  ladles  —  you  too,  gentlemen  —  hear  the  testimony 
which  shall  convict  these  reverend  LIARS!  They  give 
chapter,  and  verse,  and  volume  of  Wesley's  Works — the  very 
book  I  hold  in  my  hand!  And  well  they  may;  because  this 
book  contains  the  only  tract  or  article  by  Mr.  Wesley,  in 
existence,  against  the  writings  of  Baron  Swedenborg,  a,s  every 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  137 

intelligent  Methodist  knows.  Here  it  is,  headed  as  Mr.  Ross 
says,  covering  eight  leaves  or  sixteen  pages  in  this  book,  vol. 
vii.  of  Wesley's  Works,  pages  426 — 440.  Mr.  Wesley 
says : 

Many  years  ago  the  Baron  came  over  to  England,  and  lodged  at  one 
Mr.  Brockmer's,  who  informed  me,  and  the  same  information  was 
given  me  by  Mr.  Mathesius,  a  very  serious  Swedish  clergyman,  (both 
of  Avhom  were  alive  when  I  left  London,  and,  I  suppose,  are  so  still,) 
that  while  he  was  in  his  house  he  had  a  violent  fever;  in  the  height 
of  which,  being  totally  delirious,  he  broke  from  Mr.  Brockmer,  ran 
into  the  street  stark  naked,  proclaimed  himself  the  Messiah,  and  rolled 
himself  into  the  mire.  I  suppose  he  dates  from  this  time  his  admis- 
sion into  the  society  of  angels.  From  this  time  we  are  undoubtedly 
to  date  that  peculiar  species  of  insanity  which  attended  him,  with 
scarce  any  intermission,  to  the  day  of  his  death. 

In  all  history  I  find  but  one  instance  of  an  insanity  parallel  to  this. 
I  mean  that  related  by  the  Roman  poet  of  the  gentleman  at  Argos,  in 
other  respects  a  sensible  man. 

I  make  no  scruples  to  affirm  this  is  as  arrant  nonsense  as  was  ever 
pronounced  by  any  man  in  Bedlam. 

Be  this  a  specimen  of  the  Baron's  skill  in  expounding  the  Scriptures. 
Come  we  now  to  his  memorable  visions  and  revelations. 

Any  serious  man  may  observe  that  many  of  these  are  silly  and 
childish  to  the  last  degree;  that  many  others  are  amazingly  odd  and 
whimsical;  many  palpably  absurd,  contrary  to  all  sound  reason;  and 
many  more  contrary,  not  only  to  particular  texts,  but  to  the  whole 
tenor  of  Scripture. 

Who  illuminated  either  Jacob  Behmen  or  Baron  Swedenborg  flatly 
to  contradict  these  things?  It  could  not  be  the  God  of  the  holy 
prophets,  for  he  is  always  consistent  with  himself.  Certainly  it  was 
the  spirit  of  darkness.  And  indeed  "the  light  which  was  in  them 
was  darkness,"  while  they  labor  to  kill  the  never-dying  worm,  and  to 
put  out  the  unquenchable  fire !  And  with  what  face  can  any  profess- 
ing to  believe  in  the  Bible  give  any  countenance  to  these  dreamers? — 
that  filthy  dreamer  in  particular,  who  takes  care  to  provide  harlots, 
instead  of  fire  and  brimstone,  for  the  devils  and  damned  spirits  in 
belli  0  my  brethren!  let  none  of  you  that  fear  God  recommend  such 
a  writer  any  more!  much  less  labor  to  make  the  deadly  poison  palata- 
ble, by  sweetening  it  with  all  care!  All  his  folly  and  nonsense  we 
may  excuse,  but  not  his  making  God  a  liar-^not  his  contradicting,  in 
so  flagrant  a  manner,  the  whole  oracles  of  God!  True,  his  tales  are 
often  exceedingly  lively,  and  as  entertaining  as  the  tales  of  the  fairies, 
but  I  dare  not  give  up  my  Bible  for  them ;  and  I  must  give  up  one  or 
the  other.  If  the  preceding  extracts  are  from  God,  then  the  Bible  is 
only  a  fable;  but  if  "all  Scriptures  are  given  by  inspiration  of  God,'' 
then  let  these  di'eamers  sink  into  the  pit  from  whence  they  came. 

Wa^efieM,  May  9,  1782.  John  Wesley. 


138  THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

The  slanders  complained  of. — Ladies  and  gentlemen  : 
under  this  head  1  propose  to  present  you  other  and  different 
views  of  this  controversy  from  those  upon  which  I  have  dwelt 
thus  far.  Having  said  a  good  deal  to-day  of  a  severe  charac- 
ter against  Mr.  Koss  and  the  Athens  synod,  and  intending, 
before  I  leave  this  stand,  to  say  a  good  deal  more,  I  will 
briefly  present  our  ground  of  comjjhiint,  as  IMethodists,  in 
justification  of  my  course,  and  of  my  abuse.  In  other  words, 
I  will,  for  the  information  of  such  in  this  large  assembly  as 
have  not  had  access  to  the  "Calvinistic  Magazine,'^  in  which, 
under  various  heads,  within  the  last  three  years,  this  man 
Ross,  and  the  pliant  tools  of  the  synod — who  go  at  his  bid- 
ding and  come  at  his  call — have  taken  occasion  to  express 
themselves  most  freely  as  to  the  vjnorance,  degradatioiij 
Jii/pocrifit/ J  corrwption^  and  even  infamy ^  of  the  inemhersliip 
and  ministri/  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the 
United  States.  They  talk  about  abuse!  The  disciples  of 
Ross,  Palmer,  Morrison  &  Co.,  are  the  last  people  on  earth 
who  should  complain  of  my  abuse,  or  the  abuse  of  any  Me- 
thodist who  attempts  a  refutation  of  the  slanders  of  Ross. 
That  vile  man  and  his  associates  have  attempted  to  immolate 
the  whole  Methodist  Church  upon  the  brazen  altar  oi personal 
abuse!  The  language  of  bitter  reproach  and  burning  invec- 
tive has  been  exhausted  upon  our  members,  ministers,  doc- 
trines, and  discipline,  by  this  anointed  band  of  calumniators. 
And  as  to  Ross  himself,  St.  Giles  has  been  put  to  the  blush 
in  the  filthiness  of  the  epithets  which  he  has  bestowed  upon 
the  living  and  the  dead  of  our  Church !  And  yet,  as  if  in 
mockery  of  all  human  sincerity,  as  if  intending  to  add  insult 
to  injury,  the  vile  advocates  of  this  man,  and  the  dirty  little 
whippers-in,  cry  out  that  we  substitute  abuse  for  argument ! 

I  will  bring  together,  in  this  part  of  my  address,  a  few 
only  of  the  published  opinions  of  these  slanderers,  and  of  the 
hard   speeches  which   these   ungodly   sinners   have   uttered 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL  EXAMINED.  139 

against  our  Church.  I  beseech  every  lady  and  gentleman 
under  the  sound  of  my  voice  to  hear  these  sayings  patiently 
and  impartially.  I  will  read  to  you  from  the  Magazines  them- 
selves, giving  chapter  and  verse;  and  invite  any  gentleman 
present,  who  may  feel  free  to  do  so,  to  stand  at  my  side  and 
see  that  I  read  correctly. 

In  the  Magazine  for  August,  1846,  the  Rev.  Slanderer  says : 

But  the  broad  fact  remains,  after  all  concessions,  that  Methodism 
is  a  debauched  pietism,  in  which  the  imagination  has  run  wild,  and 
passion,  bodily  symiDathy,  and  mysticism  are  supreme,  while  true 
moral  character  is  subordinate  and  degraded.  We  speak  out  and 
challenge  examination.  We  speak  out  and  say  that  rottenness  is  in 
the  very  bones  of  the  moral  system  created  by  Methodism,  to  an 
awful  extent. 

In  the  Magazine  for  November,  1846,  he  says : 

It  is  sometimes  asked,  with  great  greenness,  what  business  have 
we,  the  editors  of  the  Calvinistic  Magazine,  with  the  Methodist  sys- 
tem? We  answer — just  the  same  business  we  would  have  if  a  man 
living  in  the  same  house  with  us  had  a  barrel  of  gunpowder  in  his 
room.  We  think  we  should  have  the  right  to  try  to  get  that  powder 
out  of  the  house.  So  we  have  the  right  to  expose  popery,  and  pre- 
lacy, and  Methodism,  as  dangerous  to  the  civil  and  religious  liberty 
of  our  country. 

We  said  in  the  outset  that  this  article  is  No.  1.  We  have  materials 
for  at  least  twelve  numbers  of  the  Great  Iron  Wheel,  in  which,  if 
spared,  we  will  show  the  beginnings  of  Romanism  in  as  many  par- 
ticulars in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  And  as  proof  of  what 
is  to  come,  we  feel  sure  no  candid  man  will  rise  from  the  reading  of 
this  number  without  saying,  with  a  long  breath,  "Well,  Methodism  is 
worse  than  I  thought  it  was." 

In  the  3Iagazine  for  April,  1847,  in  the  second  number  of 
his  '^Iron  "Wheel,''  he  says  : 

We  have  often  remarked  a  peculiar  insensibility,  as  a  characteristic 
of  the  Methodist  common  mass,  a  peculiar  insensibility  to  moral  honor 
and  integrity  of  character.  We  have  not  dropped  this  sentence  in  hasty 
writing.     We  say  deliberately  it  is  so — it  is  so — wide  and  deep. 

Upon  this  last  extract  indulge  me  in  offering  a  word  of 
comment.  He  says  the  Methodist  common  masses  are  insen- 
sible to  moral  honor  and  integrity  of  character — that  is  to 


140  THE    GIIKAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED, 

say,  thcj  are  destitute  of  both !  Has  it  then  come  to 
this,  that  a  Christiau  people  will  sustain  a  minister  who 
openly  comes  out  and  charges  that  the  common  masses  of  one 
of  the  most  numerous  sects  in  this  country,  a  highly  respect- 
able and  evangelical  denomination,  are  destitute  of  moral 
honesty  and  integrity  of  character  ?  What  constitutes  a 
gentleman  and  a  Christian,  in  this  community  ?  I  answer, 
moral  honesty  and  integrity  of  character.  This  is  all  any 
man  possesses  that  renders  him  worthy  of  the  esteem  of  his 
fellow-men.  He  who  has  neither  is  a  mockery  of  a  man — a 
burlesque  of  our  noble  species — a  beast  in  human  form ! 

But  who  are  our  common  masses  ?  On  my  right,  they  are 
those  young  men,  sons  of  honest  farmers  and  mechanics,  who 
eat  bread  by  the  sweat  of  their  brows  !  On  my  left,  they  are 
those  Methodist  mothers  and  daughters,  the  wives  and  chil- 
dren of  the  farmers  and  mechanics  of  this  country — the  better 
part  of  society — who  wash  their  own  clothes,  sweep  their  own 
houses,  spin  and  weave  their  own  garments,  and  cook  their 
own  victuals !  You. — yes,  i/oit,  young  ladies  and  young  gen- 
tlemen whom  I  address — are  charged,  by  this  vile  slanderer 
and  dirty  blackguard,  with  being  destitute  of  moral  honesty 
and  integrity  of  character ;  and  the  Athens  Synod,  to  a  man, 
swore  upon  their  oaths  that  he  told  the  truth  when  he  made 
the  charge.  Yes,  this  big,  two-fisted  ditch-digger  and  grass- 
cutter,  the  i?ei'.  Mr.  Palmer,  who  sometimes  preaches  to  you 
in  this  village,  declared  by  his  vote  in  this  Synod,  that  you, 
his  neighbors,  were  just  this  degraded  set  of  poor  wretches  that 
Ross  has  charged ! 

Again  :  on  page  135  of  the  same  number,  he  says : 

It  hardens  the  conscience  to  moral  obligations.  It  prostrates  body 
and  soul  under  the  feet  of  an  irresponsible  ministry.  It  injures  the 
piety  of  the  good  man.  It  encourages  hypocrisy.  It  must,  if  fully 
developed,  demoralize  society. 

Once  more  he  says,  in  his  article  styled  "  Iron  Wheel :" 


THE    GREAT    IRON    WPIEEL    EXAMINED.  141 

It  is  astounding  thtat  any  set  of  men,  after  the  Ameincan  Revolution, 
should  have  dared  to  fabricate,  and  set  in  motion,  this  great  Iron 
Wheel  of  the  Itinerancy !  Just  look  at  it,  and  you  see  it  is  a  perfect 
system  of  passive  obedience  and  non-resistance. 

The  thing  is  a  naked  despotism — imperial  power,  in  an  ecclesiastical 
aristocracy,  unblushingly  avowed  and  gloried  in. 

The  system  is  dangerous  to  our  liberties,  civil  and  religious.  It 
ought  to  be  understood  and  done  away,  by  public  opinion,  enlightened 
by  the  spirit  of  the  Bible ;  and  the  movement  to  do  it  away  cannot 
be  too  soon. 

The  Methodist  system  is  death  to  all  the  institutions  for  which 
Washington  fought  and  freemen  died  ! 

Besides  these,  in  the  Magazine  for  April,  1847,  he  intro- 
duces certain  Latin  Questions  and  Answers,  liable  to  be  asked 
of  ^^ married  u:omen  and  single  girls/'  in  our  band  and  class- 
meetings,  which  he  asserts  they  "are  hound  to  answer/'  and 
which  bring  these  females  "under  priestly  control" — charg- 
ing, in  substance  and  in  fact,  that  Methodist  females  who 
frequent  these  meetings  are  STRUMPETS,  and  that  our 
ministers  are  a  set  of  FOllNICATORS  !  We  will  not  inter- 
pret or  add  the  Latin  in  question,  because  of  its  revolting 

OBSCENITY. 

During  the  sitting  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  Knoxville,  in 
September  last,  a  distinguished  lawyer,  an  elder  in  Mr.  Ross's 
church,  wrote  him  frankly,  that  the  Methodists  regarded  him 
as  charging  the  Methodist  females  as  aforesaid,  and  requested 
him  to  disavow  such  charges  or  intention,  in  his  next  Maga- 
zine. To  this  he  replied  with  great  warmth,  on  page  332  of 
the  October  number : 

Is  it  all  pure  and  proper  to  tell  in  Latin  what  Rome  does  ?  But  is 
it  all  filthy,  if  we  tell  in  the  same  Latin  what  Methodism  would  do 
"  if  the  class  confessional  was  enforced  as  Mr.  Wesley  planned  it,  and 
as  it  is  in  the  discipline  ?"  Obscenity !  Why,  every  thinking  man 
knows  that  this  cry  of  modesty  is  hypocritical  cant,  to  hide  the  class 
and  band.  Obscenity !  W^e  have  nothixg  to  recall.  Rather  the 
more  earnestly  we  desire  that  Methodist  mothers  may  read  that  very 
page  in  the  Calvinistic  Magazine.  Respectfully  we  urge  her  to  read 
it  alone  with  her  husband,  and  to  ask  him  the  English  of  the  Latin. 
Then  let  her  remember  that  the  priest  has  a  right  to  ask  of  ladies 
these  questions.     After  this,  will  she  compare  the  Latin  questions  to 


142  THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

bo  put  by  the  priests,  with  tlio  questions  required  to  be  asked  in  the 
band  at  every  meeting;?  Then  may  she  pray  God  to  shield  her  and 
lior  (laughters  from  the  horrid  consunimatif)n  of  the  class  confessional, 
'*if  enforced  as  Mr.  Wesley  planned  it,  and  as  it  is  in  the  discipline." 

Thus,  it  will  be  seen  he  takes  nothing  back.  Ptathcr,  he 
says,  lot  the  Methodist  mother  ''pray  God  to  shield  her  and 
her  daughter  from  the  horrid  consummation  of  the  class 
coufessional !"  Consummation  Webster  defines  thus  :  "  the 
most  intimate  union  of  the  sexes!" 

Now,  in  reference  to  this  Magazine,  and  all  its  slanders,  the 
Athens  Synod,  on  the  12th  of  October,  1846,  without  a 
DISSENTING  VOICE,  as  Mr.  Ross  boasts,  adopted  the  following 
resolution,  and  published  it  in  the  Magazine  for  November  of 
that  year : 

Resolved,  That  synod  recommend  the  Calvinistic  Magazine,  pub- 
lished under  the  editorial  care  of  Rev.  Isaac  Anderson,  D.  D.,  F.  A. 
Ross,  James  King,  and  James  McChain,*  AS  A  MOST  EXCELLENT 
PERIODICAL ! ! ! 

To  show  this  audience  that  I  do  not  err  in  saying  that  all 
this  slander  of  the  ''Tract"  and  "Magazine"  is  but  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Synod — of  the  Church — I  herewith  read  what 
3Ir.  Blac7vburn,'f  a  Presbyterian  preacher  of  Maryville,  said 
in  the  Knoxville  Register  of  the  5th  of  January,  1848. 
This  reverend  gentleman,  reflecting  the  sentiments  of  Dr. 
Anderson,  the  senior  editor  of  the  Magazine,  and  of  the  Synod 
of  which  he  is  a  member,  or  liable  to  bo  in  turn,  says : 

Mr.  Ross  has,  in  association  with  three  other  ministers  and  coeditors, 
enunciated  our  views  on  Methodist  Church  government.  The  Calvin- 
istic  3[agazine  is  our  regularly  constituted  organ  ;  and  until  its  teachings 
are  disavowed,  is  properly  taken  as  our  true  exponent.  We  subscribe  to 
"The  Great  Iron  Wheel"  our  cordial  assent.  We  are  to  be  held  ac- 
countable as  a  Church,  because  the  Magazine  was  called  into  existence, 

■^  It  is  proper  to  say,  that  while  the  other  gentlemen  were  associate 
editors,  Mr.  Ross  wrote  all  these  violent  articles. 

f  Mr.  Blackburn  is  now  the  editor  of  the  "Presbyterian  Witness," 
at  Knoxville,  185G. 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  143 

and  the  editors  appointed  by  solemn  vote  of  our  synod. — To  the  Caesar 
of  public  judgment  shall  we  go.  Many  have  been  the  tirades  pub- 
lished against  the  Magazine :  they  fall  on  us.  We  have,  however, 
never  complained;  and,  by  the  grace  of  God,  never  shall.  We  believe 
there  are  errors  in  Arminianism — corruption  and  tyranny  in  Method- 
ist Church  government ;  and  this  belief  we  will  proclaim  to  the  world, 
though  we  were  assured  that  the  powers  of  earth,  and  all  the  foreiyn 
aid  they  could  get,  were  combined  against  us." 

Here  is  a  frank  and  open  confession,  in  one  of  the  political 
journals  of  East  Tennessee,  by  a  Presbyterian  preacher,  that 
Mr.  Ross  is  the  great  boa-constrictor  of  the  New  School 
Church,  and  the  shark  of  the  Athens  Synod,  (whose  life  is  a 
perfect  romance  of  calumny !)  who  has  used  the  names  of  the 
members  of  the  Synod  as  saddle-bags,  in  which  to  deposit  his 
slanders  !  Here  is  a  confession  to  the  effect  that  the  members 
of  the  Synod  were  the  pilot-fishes  to  this  great  shark ;  but 
neither  Mr.  Blackburn,  nor  naturalists,  have  informed  us  what 
portion  of  the  spoils  the  pilot-fish  is  entitled  to ! 

In  addition  to  what  is  said  in  the  Magazine,  we  subjoin  a 
few  extracts  from  a  book  published  by  Mr.  Ross,  entitled, 
'^  The  Direct  Witness,''  etc.     On  page  92,  he  says  : 

The  doctrine  of  the  direct  witness  of  the  Spirit,  as  taught  by  Mr. 
Wesley,  is  mischievous  in  its  tendency.  Mischief  to  the  soul  of  man 
is  upon  its  very  face ;  and  mischief  has  followed  its  propagation,  and 
that  continually,  everywhere ! 

On  page  97,  he  concludes  a  chapter  in  these  words : 

I  appeal,  wherever  this  address  may  go,  whether  mischief  is  not 
upon  the  face  of  Mr.  Wesley's  doctrine,  and  mischief  has  not  followed 
its  propagation,  and  that  continually,  in  every  place:  whether  it 
is  not  everywhere  the  ALCOHOL  of  pretended  religious  experience, 
producing  nothing  better  than  fanatical  intoxication. 

Again,  on  page  106,  Mr.  Ross  thus  denounces  the  whole 
Methodist  ministry  as  a  pack  of  lying,  slanderous  hypocrites, 
who  go  about  the  dirty  work  of  the  Devil,  and  making  the 
naturally  depraved  hearts  of  sinners  worse  than  they  are  wont 
to  be  : 


144  THE    GREAT    JlloN    WIIKKL    EXAMINED. 

Go  nmong  the  inhiibitants  of  the  obscurest  dell,  or  highest  peak,  or 
farthest  limit  of  prairie,  visited  by  the  Methodist  itinerant,  and  there 
you  find  the  Presbyterian  has  been  ali-eady  misrepresented.  Whose 
hands  have  scattered  these  arrows  ?  Mrthodixt  preachers.  Whose  lips 
have  taught  these  wild  or  simple  people  to  hate  God's  sovereignty, 
his  electing  love,  and  preserving  grace,  with  a  hatred  beyond  that  of 
tlie  natural  heart?     Metuodist  preachers. 

On  page  108,  after  denouncing  Methodists  as  "  novices, 
deceivers,  hypocrites,  fools,  and  fanatics,"  Mr.  Ross  proceeds 
to  inquire — 

May  I  not  show  Methodism  to  be  Methodism  ?  May  I  not  show  ita 
government  and  discipline  to  be  planted  with  the  germs  of  Romanism? 
May  I  not  show  that  Methodism,  having  these  degrading  elements,  is 
utterly  feeble  to  exert  high  moral  power  on  man  ? 

In  reference  to  the  "Tract''  containing  all  this  slander,  and 
even  more  and  worse,  this  same  Synod,  with  a  recklessness 
and  malice  not  even  excelled  by  the  ^^Neiu  York  Empire 
Cluh,"  adopted  the  following  resolution  "with  absolute 
unanimity" — that   is   to   say,   without   one   dissenting 

VOICE  ! 

Resolved,  That  in  the  estimation  of  sjmod,  a  Tract  lately  published 
by  F.  A.  Ross,  entitled,  "The  Doctrine  of  the  Direct  Witness  of  the 
Spirit,  as  taught  by  Rev.  John  Wesley,  shown  to  he  false,  unscriptural, 
fanatical,  and  of  mischievous  tendency,"  is  an  able  production,  setting 
forth  that  important  subject  in  its  true  scriptural  light,  and  is  ear- 
nestly recommended  to  the  perusal  of  all  the  members  of  our  Church. 

To  all  this  we  add  the  following  from  Mr.  Ross's  Glade 
Spring  discourse : 

No.  2. — It  is  a  degradation  to  any  one  to  join  the  Methodist  Church, 
unless  he  set  his  face  as  a  flint  to  reform  it. 

In  conclusion,  these  are  some  of  the  slanders  the  Methodists 
complain  of.  And  when  gentlemen  speak  of  ahuse  heaped 
upon  Mr.  Ross,  let  them  consider  what  it  is  we  are  replying 
to — not  merely  this  degraded  and  slanderous  blackguard — 
this  illegitimate  son  of  an  old  negro  wench — this  adidteroiiS 


THE   GREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  145 

descendant  of  an  old  Scotch  Tory — but  all  the  RULING  ELDERS 

AND  MINISTERS  OF  THE  LATE  SyNOD  OF  TENNESSEE  ! 

And  wbat  Mr.  Blackbura  has  here  said  of  the  cooperation 
of  the  Synod  with  Mr.  Ross,  in  this  great  work  of  detraction, 
I  can  with  safety  say  of  nine-tenths  of  their  membership  in 
East  Tennessee.  It  is  a  mistaken  notion  into  which  many  of 
the  Methodists  have  fallen,  that  Mr.  Ross's  course  is  not 
approved  by  his  members.  A  few  individuals  desire  him  to 
cease  his  abuse  of  the  Methodists,  and  half  of  these  few 
desire  peace  because  they  dread  the  final  result  of  the  contro- 
versy. The  great  mass  of  the  New  School  party,  steeped  to 
the  nose  and  chin  in  devotion  to  the  writings  of  Ross,  drink 
down  what  he  says,  with  most  disgusting  complacency. 
Hence,  any  pretension  of  friendship  and  esteem  is  but  adding 
insult  to  injury.  They  pretend  to  invite  Methodist  preachers 
to  their  pulpits,  to  their  sacramental  boards,  and  to  their 
houses,  while  they  are  hurling  all  this  scorn  at  them  through 
their  highest  ecclesiastical  courts,  and  in  this  dogmatic  spirit ! 
The  controversy  with  them,  is  held,  not  for  truth,  but  for 
victory.  These  are  the  Scylla  and  Charybdis  with  the  Ross- 
ites  ]  while  they  are  making  the  Church  a  mere  thoroughfare 
to  Rome  or  Geneva  ! 

There  are  many  kind-hearted  Methodists  in  the  country 
who  are  opposed  to  all  this  angry  controversy,  and  who  oppose 
it  from  correct  motives.  Their  kindness  feeds  on  reflection 
rather  than  impulse :  they  know  that  Christians  cannot  add 
to  their  graces  by  this  busy,  bustling  spirit  of  controversy — 
this  struggle  to  be  seen  and  heard.  They  recollect  that  Elijah 
found  not  the  Lord  in  the  tempest,  but  in  the  quiet  and  calm 
— ^'Be  still,  and  knoio  that  I  am  God.''  Many  hypocritical 
Rossites  take  advantage  of  this  goodness  of  heart,  and  con- 
demn, in  no  measured  terms,  the  controversy,  when  in  the 
company  of  such  persons.  Nay,  more — they  speak  feelingly 
of  union,  and  profess  great  friendship  for  their  Methodist 
7 


146  THE    ORKAT    mON    WIIKEL   EXAMINED. 

brethren.  Beware  of  all  such  !  Like  the  fabled  bat  of 
Madagascar^  they  will  suck  all  the  blood  out  of  your  veius, 
while  they  fan  you  to  sleep  with  their  wide-spreading  wings 
of  union  ! 

But  who  is  it  that  makes  this  powerful  appeal  to  the  Revo- 
lutionary sires,  in  this  country,  to  rise  up  in  their  might  and 
put  down  the  monster  Methodism,  before  it  destroys  our  civil 
and  religious  liberties?  Is  it  the  son  of  George  Washington, 
who  served  his  country  so  faithfully  ?  No.  Is  it  the  son  of 
Andrew  Jackson,  who  led  our  armies  to  victory  upon  the 
plains  of  New  Orleans?  No.  Is  it  the  son  of  Zach.  Taylor, 
or  Winfield  Scott,  who,  at  the  head  of  the  American  army, 
recently  triumphed  on  so  many  fields  in  Mexico  ?  No :  these 
distinguished  generals  had  no  sons ;  or  if  they  had,  they  have 
expressed  no  such  fears  of  the  ruinous  tendency  of  Method- 
ism. Who  is  it,  then  ?  Echo  answers,  who  ?  I  reply,  it  is 
the  adulterous,  slanderous,  unprincipled,  and  degraded  son 
of  an  old  Virginia  ?2f^ro  wench — the  illegitimate  son  of  an  old 
Scotch  Tory  of  the  war  of  the  llevolution,  who  did  all  that 
lay  in  his  power  to  destroy  those  liberties  *^  for  which  Wash- 
ington fought  and  freemen  died."  In  other  words,  it  is 
Frederick  Augustus  Ross — the  last  man  living  that  ought  to 
open  his  mouth  about  opposition  to  civil  and  religious  liberties, 
or  even  hint  at  the  war  of  the  llevolution  ! 

I  will  read  you  an  extract  or  two  from  the  "  Journal  of 
THE  Convention  of  Virginia,  for  June,  1776,"  a  venera- 
ble old  document,  giving  the  proceedings  of  a  patriotic  band 
of  men  one  month  prior  to  the  Declaration  of  American  In- 
dependence. On  page  66,  June  27,  we  find  the  following 
intelligence  : — 

Mr.  Gary,  from  the  committee  appointed,  presented  to  the  Conven- 
tion, according  to  order,  an  ordinance  to  enable  the  present  magis- 
ti'ates  and  officers  to  continue  the  administration  of  justice,  and  for 
settling  the  general  mode  of  proceedings  in  criminal  and  other  cases 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  147 

till  the  same  can  be  more  amply  provided  for ;  ■whicli  was  read  tho 
first  time,  and  ordered  to  be  read  a  second  time. 

Resolved,  That  this  Convention  will  to-morrow  again  resolve  itself 
into  the  said  committee. 


Among  the  criminals  arraigned  at  the  bar  of  the  Conven- 
tion, under  arrest  for  ^^ giving  aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemy ^'^ 
was  DAVID  EOSS,  the  father  of  the  ostensible  editor  of 
the  Calvinistic  Magazine,  a  Scotchman  by  birth,  a  foreigner  in 
feeling,  and  a  Tory  in  practice.  On  page  78  of  the  Journal, 
under  date  of  "  Friday,  June  28,  1776,''  this  authentic  old 
document  proceeds : — 

Mr.  Archibald  Gary,  from  the  Committee  of  Privileges  and  Elec- 
tions, reported  that  the  committee  had,  according  to  order,  had  under 
their  consideration  the  information  respecting  David  Ross,  and  had 
come  to  the  following  resolution  thereupon,  which  he  read  in  his 
place,  and  afterwards  delivered  in  at  the  clerk's  table,  where  the 
same  was  again  read  and  agreed  to  : 

Resolved,  That  the  information  against  the  said  David  Ross  be  heard 
before  this  committee  on  the  second  Monday  after  the  meeting  of  the 
next  Convention  or  Assembly ;  and  that  the  said  Ross  be  discharged 
out  of  custody,  on  giving  bond  and  securitij  in  the  sum  o/ £5,000  to  ap- 
pear at  the  next  meeting  of  Convention  or  Assembly,  to  answer  the 
said  information  on  the  day  fixed  for  hearing  the  same ;  and  that  he 
doth  not  in  the  meantime  give  intelligence  to  or  in  any  manner  aid  or  assist 
the  enemy. 

Upon  the  laying  over. of  Ross's  case  to  a  future  day,  his 
accomplices  in  Toryism  petitioned  the  Assembly  to  let  them 
leave  the  country  for  England;  whereupon  the  following  reso- 
lution was  adopted,  and  is  found  on  page  77  of  said  Journal : 

Resolved,  That  the  said  petition  is  reasonable,  and  that  the  peti- 
tioners have  leave  to  depart  this  country  after  taking  an  oath  not  to 
bear  arms  against  America,  nor  give  intelligence  to  the  enemy  during  the 
present  war. 

The  most  important  item  in  the  history  of  this  old  Tory  will 
be  found  on  page  35  of  said  Journal,  dated  June  6,  1776, 
where  the  Convention  had  David  Ross  before  them  as  a  pris- 


148  THE   ORKAT   IRON    WIIKKL   EXAMINED. 

oner,  on  a  charge  of  having  delivered  a  ColoncVs  commission 
to  a  certain  person  to  bring  the  Indians  against  this  countn/ 
to  cooperate  with  the  British,  and  they  were  in  motion  accord- 
ingly ;  and  for  that  he  was  publicly  tried,  and  of  the  crime 
convicted,  and  came  within  one  of  being  put  to  death  ! 

Surely  F.  A.  Ross  is  the  last  man  in  Tennessee  who  ought 
to  speak  of  "  illustrious  predecessors/^  or  the  ''  liberties  for 
which  Washington  fought  and  freemen  died  /"  His  old  father 
was  a  most  recreant  Tory,  the  partner  of  old  Hook,  furnishing 
the  British  army  with  the  very  heef  and  meal  they  were  em- 
ployed to  furnish  the  American  army,  and  then,  in  turn,  in- 
forming the  British  officers  of  the  movements  of  the  Ameri- 
can army ! 

Did  ever  John  Wesley,  Francis  Asbury,  or  any  other  Me- 
thodist preacher,  go  this  length  against  the  war  of  the  Revo- 
lution ?  Ko,  NO,  NO  I  But  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bile,  of  Boston, 
a  distinguished  Presbyterian  preacher,  a  native  of  New  Jer- 
sey, did  openly  take  sides  with  the  British  in  that  memorable 
struggle,  and  was  dismissed  from  his  congregation,  and  fled  to 
England  to  save  his  neck  from  the  halter ! 

Since  Ross  and  his  Synod  have  arraigned  the  Methodists 
upon  their  opposition  to  '^  civil  and  religious  liberties,^'  I  wish 
to  show  what  ground  they  occupy  themselves.  Thomas  Jef- 
ferson, the  father  of  American  democracy,' understood  the 
genius  of  Presbyterianism,  not  in  its  theological  deformity, 
but  as  a  statesman,  in  its  bearing  upon  the  '' liberties  for 
which  Washington  fought  and  freemen  died.''  In  volume 
fourth,  page  358,  of  his  works,  Mr.  Jefferson  says  : — 

The  atmosphere  of  our  country  is  unquestionably  charged  with  a 
threatening  cloud  of  fanaticism,  lighter  in  some  parts,  denser  in 
others,  but  too  heavy  in  all.  I  had  no  idea,  however,  that  in  Penn- 
sylvania, the  cradle  of  toleration  and  freedom  of  religion,  it  could 
have  risen  to  the  height  you  describe.  This  must  be  owing  to  the 
growth  of  Presbyterianism.  Here,  Episcopalian  and  Presbyterian, 
Methodist  and  Baptist,  join  together  in  hymning  their  Maker,  listen 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  149 

■with  attention  and  devotion  to  each  other's  preachers,  and  all  mix  in 
society  with  perfect  harmony.  It  is  not  so  in  the  districts  where 
Presbyterianism  prevails  undividedly.  Their  ambition  and  tyranny 
would  tolerate  no  rival,  if  they  had  power.  Systematical  at  grasping 
at  an  ascendency  over  all  other  sects,  they  aim  at  engrossing  the  edu- 
cation of  the  country ;  are  hostile  to  every  institution  they  do  not 
direct;  are  jealous  at  seeing  others  begin  to  attend  at  all  to  that 
object. 

On  the  same  subject,  he  says,  in  his  letter  to  William 
Short,  page  322  :— 

The  Presbyterian  clergy  are  the  loudest,  the  most  intolerant  of  all 
sects — the  most  tyrannical  and  ambitious :  ready  at  the  word  of  the 
lawgiver,  if  such  a  word  could  now  be  obtained,  to  put  the  torch  to 
tlie  pile,  and  to  rekindle  in  this  virgin  hemisphere  the  flames  in  which 
their  oracle,  Calvin,  consumed  the  poor  Servetus,  because  he  could 
not  subscribe  the  proposition  of  Calvin,  that  magistrates  have  a  right 
to  exterminate  all  heretics  to  the  Calvinistic  creed.  They  pant  to  re- 
establisli  by  law  that  holy  inquisition  which  they  can  now  only  infuse 
into  public  opinion. 

And  to  show  that  Mr.  Jefferson  wrote  even  prophecy ,  listen 
to  Dr.  Ely,  the  great  expounder  of  American  Presbyterian- 
ism, in  a  Fourth  of  July  sermon  delivered  in  Philadelphia  in 

1827  :— 

We  have  assembled,  fellow-citizens,  on  the  anniversary  of  our  na- 
tion's birthday,  in  a  rational  and  religious  manner,  to  celebrate 
our  independence  of  all  foreign  dominion,  and  the  goodness  of  God 
in  making  us  a  free  people.  On  what  subject  can  I,  on  the  present 
occasion,  insist  with  more  propriety  than  on  the  duty  of  all  the  rulers 
and  citizens  of  these  United  States,  in  the  exercise  and  enjoyment  of 
all  their  political  rights,  to  honor  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ?  Let  it,  then, 
be  distinctly  stated  and  fearlessly  maintained,  in  the  first  place,  that 

EVERY  MEMBER  OF  THIS  CHRISTIAN  NATION,  FROM  THE   HIGHEST  TO  THE 

LOWEST,  ought  to  serve  the  Lord  with  fear,  and  yield  his  sincere 
homage  to  the  Son  of  God.  Every  ruler  should  be  an  avowed  and 
sincere  friend  of  Christianity.  He  should  knoiv  and  believe  the  doc- 
trines of  our  holy  religion,  and  act  in  conformity  with  its  precepts. 

This  he  ought  to  do ;  because  as  a  man  he  is  required  to  serve  the 
Lord,  and  as  a  public  ruler  he  is  called  upon  by  Divine  authority  to 
"kiss  the  Son."  The  commandment  contained  in  Proverbs  iii.  6,  "en 
all  thy  tvays  acknowledge  him,"  including  public  as  well  as  private  ways^ 
and  POLITICAL  no  less  than  domestic  ways ! 


150  THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

Let  all,  then,  Jiflrait  that  our  civil  rulers  ought  to  act  a  religious 
part  in  all  the  relations  they  sustain. 

If  a  ruler  is  not  a  Christian,  lie  ought  to  be  one,  in  this  land  of 
evangelical  light,  without  delay,  and  he  ought,  being  a  follower  of 
Jesus,  to  honor  him  even  as  he  honors  the  Father.  In  this  land 
of  religious  freedom,  what  should  hinder  a  civil  magistrate  from  be- 
lieving the  gospel  and  professing  faith  in  Christ  any  more  than  any 
other  man  ?  If  the  chief  magistrate  of  a  nation  may  be  an  irreligious 
man  with  impunity,  who  may  not? 

Our  rulers,  like  any  other  members  of  the  community  who  are 
under  law  to  God  as  rational  beings,  and  under  law  to  Christ,  since 
they  have  the  light  of  Divine  revelation,  ought  to  search  the  Scrip- 
tures, assent  to  the  truth,  profess  faith  in  Christ,  keep  the  Sabbath 
holy  to  God,  pray  in  private  and  in  the  domestic  circle,  attend  on  the 
public  ministry  of  the  word,  be  baptized,  and  celebrate  the  Lord's 
supper.  None  of  our  rulers  have  the  consent  of  their  Maker  that 
they  should  be  Pagans,  Socinians,  Mussulmen,  Deists,  the  opponents 
of  Christianity ;  and  a  religious  people  should  never  think  of  giving 
them  permission  as  public  officers  to  be  and  do  what  they  might  not 
lawful!}'  be  and  do  as  private  individuals. 

J8^"  In  other  words,  our  presidents,  secretaries  of  the  govern- 
ment, senators,  and  other  representatives  in  Congress,  governors  of 
States,  judges,  State  legislators,  justices  of  the  peace,  and  city  ma- 
gistrates, are  just  as  much  bound  as  any  other  persons  in  the  United 
States  to  be  orthodox  in  their  faith,  and  virtuous  and  religious  in  their 
whole  deportment.  '''@g 

Since  it  is  the  duty  of  all  our  rulers  to  serve  the  Lord  and  kiss  the 
Son  of  God,  it  must  be  most  manifestly  the  duty  of  all  Christian  fellow- 
citizens  to  honor  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  promote  Christianity,  by 
electing  and  supporting  as  public  officers  the  friends  of  our  blessed 
Saviour. 

In  all  thy  ways  acknowledge,  him,  is  a  maxim  which  should  dwell  in 
a  Christian's  mind  on  the  day  of  a  public  election  as  much  as  on  the 
Sabbath,  and  which  should  govern  him  when  conspiring  with  others 
to  honor  Christ,  either  at  the  Lord's  table  or  in  the  election  of  chief 
viagistrate. 

If  the  wise,  the  prudent,  the  temperate,  the  friends  of  God  and  of 
their  country,  do  not  endeavor  to  control  our  elections,  they  will  be  con- 
trolled by  others ;  and  if  one  good  man  may,  without  any  reasonable 
excuse,  absent  himself,  then  all  may. 

If  all  the  truly  religious  men  of  our  nation  would  be  punctual  and 
persevering  in  their  endeavors  to  have  good  men  chosen  to  fill  all  our 
national  and  State  offices  of  honor,  power  and  trust,  their  weight  would 
soon  be  felt  by  politicians,  and  those  who  care  little  for  the  religion 
of  the  Bible  would,  for  their  own  interest,  consult  the  reasonable  wishes 
of  the  great  mass  of  Christians  throughout  the  land. 

I  could  wish  to  see  every  professing  Christian  in  attendance  on  elec- 
tions ;  but  rather  let  him  never  give  a  vote  than  receive  a  treat  for  his 
suffrage.      J^^  1  propose,  fellow-citizens,  a  new  sort  of  union,  or^  if 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  161 

you  please,  A  CHRISTIAN  PARTY  IN  POLITICS,  which  I  am  exi- 
ceedingly  desirous  all  good  men  in  our  country  should  join,  "^^g 

All  who  profess  to  be  Christians  of  any  denomination  ought  to 
agree  that  they  will  support  no  man  as  a  candidate  for  any  office  who 
is  not  professedly  friendly  to  Chi-istianity,  and  a  believer  in  Divine 
revelation, 

j^^  The  Presbyterians  alone  could  bring  half  a  million  of 

ELECTORS  into  FIELD.   °^^&, 

Let  a  man  be  of  good  moral  character,  and  let  him  profess  to  be- 
lieve in  and  advocate  the  Christian  religion,  and  we  can  all  support 
him ! ! !  At  one  time  he  will  be  a  Baptist,  at  another  an  Episcopalian, 
at  another  a  Methodist,  at  another  a  Presbyterian  of  the  American. 
Scotch,  Irish,  Dutch,  or  German  stamp,  and  always  a  friend  to  our 
common  Christianity. 

I  am  free  to  avow  that,  other  things  being  equal,  I  would  prefer  for 
my  chief  magistrate,  and  judge,  and  ruler,  A  SOUND  PRESBY- 
TERIAN ;  and  evei'y  candid  religionist  will  make  the  same  declaration 
concerning  his  own  persuasion. 


WITCHES  AND  WIZARDS GHOSTS  AND    GHOST-SEERS 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : — I  will  conclude  this  address, 
already  extended  beyond  what  I  could  desire,  by  giving  you  a 
touch  upon  witchcraft  I  Mr.  Ross  and  his  Synod  attribute  to 
Mr.  Wesley  and  the  Methodists  the  honor  of  having  led  off 
in  the  belief  of  witchcraft  and  sorcery ^  and  they  charge  that 
this  doctrine  of  the  Direct  Witness  led  them  into  this  delusion  ! 
If  I  can  get  your  attention  for  thirty-five  or  forty  minutes,  I 
will  convince  you  that  the  Preshi/terians  are  the  last  people 
on  this  continent  who  should  object  to  any  one  believing  in 
the  reality  of  witchcraft,  or  even  practicing  sorcery  ! 

But  as  I  wish  to  assert  nothing  but  what  I  have  proof  for, 
I  will  read  you  the  following  short  extract  from  Mr.  Ross's 
'''Tract,"  page  73:— 

The  doctrine  of  the  Direct  Witness  is  FANATICAL,  because,  ac- 
cording to  it,  we  may  claim  that  there  is  now  CONNECTION  WITH 
THE  DEVIL  IN  WITCHCRAFT;  AND  THIS  MR.  WESLEY  BE- 
LIEVED. 

Now,  I  could  multiply  extracts  of  this  kind  to  an  indefinite 


152  THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

extent  from  the  recent  writinj^s  of  this  Rev.  Slanderer,  en 
dorsed  by  the  slanderous  Synod  at  Athens,  but  I  forbear. 

Wy  witchcraft  is  generally  understood  a  supernatural  power, 
of  which  persons  are  supposed  to  obtain  the  possession  by  enter- 
ing into  a  compact  with  the  Devil.  They  give  themselves  up 
to  Satan,  body  and  soul,  and  he  engages  that  they  shall 
want  for  nothing,  and  that  he  will  avenge  them  upon  all  their 
enemies.  As  soon  as  this  bargain  is  concluded,  the  Devil 
delivers  to  the  witch  an  imp,  or  familiar  spirit,  which,  like 
the  imp  of  Sin,  in  Milton,  ''yelps  all  around,"  ready  at  a 
call  to  do  whatever  is  directed !  By  the  assistance  of  this 
imp  and  of  the  Devil  together,  the  witch,  who  is  almost  al- 
ways an  old  woman,  (ladies,  keep  a  look-out!)  is  enabled  to 
transport  herself  through  the  air  on  a  broomstick  to  distant 
places,  to  attend  the  regular  meetings  of  the  witches  !* 

To  show  that  I  am  correct  in  my  definition  of  this  art,  I 
read  the  following  extract  from  Buck's  Theological  Dictionary, 
a  Calvinistic  work  : — 

Witchcraft,  a  supernatural  power  which  persons  were  formerly 
s  apposed  to  obtain  the  possession  of  by  entering  into  a  compact  with 
the  Devil.  Witchcraft  was  universally  believed  in  Europe  till  the  six- 
teenth century,  and  even  maintained  its  ground  with  tolerable  firm- 
ness till  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth.  The  latest  witchcraft  frenzy 
was  in  New  England  in  1692,  when  the  execution  of  witches  became 
a  calamity  more  dreadful  than  the  sword  or  the  pestilence.  Some 
have  denied  the  existence  of  witchcraft  altogether.  That  such  per- 
sons have  been  found  among  men  seems,  however,  evident  from  the 
Scriptures. 


*  At  this  moment,  the  eyes  of  the  audience  were  turned  up  to  the 
inner  comb  of  the  roof  of  the  shed.  I  looked  up,  and  discovered  a 
huge  scorpion  creeping  from  board  to  board,  and  told  them  it  was  a 
Eossite,  and  that  as  they  were  most  imbittered  against  our  tvomen,  the 
Methodist  females  in  the  assembly  had  better  keep  an  eye  on  the  im- 
postor !  Instantly  the  reptile  let  all  holds  go,  and  landed  in  the  lap 
of  a  young  lady,  but  it  was  not  long  until,  among  hands,  they  had  it 
under  foot !  Ross  himself  is  fast  getting  beneath  the  feet  of  an  in- 
dignant and  insulted  community ! 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  153 

According  to  this  definition  of  witchcraft,  there  never  were 
but  TWO  regular-built  wizards  in  all  this  country — the  one 
is  i^.  J..  Eoss,  and  the  other  James  Gallagher ,  both  Presbyte- 
rian clergymen.  These  men  published  to  the  world,  in  the 
Calvinistic  Magazine,  (old  series,)  which  I  hold  in  my  hand, 
that  they  entered  into  a  compact  with  devils,  great  and  small 
— little  devils  and  big  devils,  horned  devils  and  miily  devils 
— in  a  cave  in  Bay's  Mountain,  in  East  Tennessee,  in  Septem- 
ber, 1829.  There  they  held  their  first  synod,  and  adopted 
their  first  resolutions  against  Methodism  —  resolving  that 
Bishop  Asbury  was  a  tory,  and  hid  himself  in  a  garret-loft  in 
New  York  during  the  war  of  the  Bevolution!  There  they 
learned,  in  person,  from  devils,  (good  authority!)  that  Me- 
thodist preachers  are  tyrants  in  religion,  and  tyrants  in  poli- 
tics! And  there,  too,  they  learned  that  '^Methodism  is  death 
to  all  the  liberties  for  which  Washington  fought  and  freemen 
died  V'  Here  it  is,  in  the  Book  of  the  Chronicles  of  Hell, 
in  which  are  registered  the  memorable  exploits  of  these  rev. 
subalterns  of  his  Satanic  Majesty/,  one  of  whom  '^  pealed 
the  banner-cry  of  hell"  in  this  village,  not  long  since,  and  was 
cheered  with  reiterated  shouts  of  applause  and  enthusiastic 
admiration  !  The  other  son  of  Belial,  Gallagher,  is  now  lying, 
swindling,  and  preaching  in  the  West,  having  left  this  coun- 
try with  several  thousand  dollars,  which  he  lied  and  begged 
the  public  out  of,  as  some  of  you  know,  by  going  with  his 
knees  and  elbows  out,  and  living  on  cold  potatoes  and  butter- 
milk when  strangers  visited  him!  When  his  Tartarian 
Highness  adjourned  this  synod  in  the  cave,  it  was  to  meet 
again  in  Athens,  on  ^^ Mars'  Hill!" 

The  Bev.  John  Brown,  a  Presbyterian  divine,  already 
quoted,  says,  in  his  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  under  the  head 
^'Witchcraft" — a  work,  by  the  way,  to  be  found  in  almost 
every  Presbyterian  family  in  the  country : 


154  THE   OREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

Witch  is  a  -woman,  nnd  wizard  is  a  man,  that  has  dealings  with 
Satan,  if  not  actually  I'ntercd  into  compact  with  him.  Tiiat  such  per- 
sons arc  amonp  men,  is  ahundantl}'  plain  from  Scripture,  and  that 
they  oiKjht  to  Up  put  to  datth. — (Jreat  caution  is  necessary  in  the  de- 
tection of  the  guilty,  and  in  punishing  them,  lest  the  innocent  suffer, 
as  many  instances  in  New  England  and  other  places  show. 

To  attempt  a  serious  refutation  of  the  doctrines  of  witch- 
craft is  no  part  of  my  business.  That  there  ever  were 
witches,  that  is,  persons  endowed  with  such  powers  as  are 
usually  ascribed  to  them,  is  what  I  do  not  believe  for  one 
moment.  The  whole  matter  is  absurd  and  impossible.  To 
suppose  an  ignorant  old  woman  (or  indeed  any  human 
being)  capable  of  transforming  herself  into  a  cat,  or  an  old 
field  hare,  is  to  suppose  her  capable  of  counteracting  the  laws 
of  nature,  which  is  competent  to  none  but  God  alotie.  Yet, 
absurd  as  the  doctrine  of  witchcraft  is,  it  is  a  notorious  fact 
that  the  Freshyterian  Church,  both  in  our  own  country  and 
other  lands,  is  still  annoyed  with  it,  and  is  likely  to  be  for  a 
century  to  come. 

I  hold  in  my  hand  a  "  History  of  the  Salem  Witchcraft,'' 
compiled  by  a  Presbyterian,  as  the  writer  says,  ^'  from  the  best 
authorities" — in  which  it  is  declared  that  "so  many  are  the 
cases  of  persons  convicted  of  witchcraft  in  New  England,  in 
the  years  sixteen  hundred  and  ninety-one  and  two,  that  it 
would  require  a  larger  volume  than  this  to  record  them  all ;" 
and  this  contains,  as  you  may  see,  365  pages ! 

Hear  the  following  extract,  found  on  page  15: 

Mr.  Parris  had  an  Indian  servant  in  his  house.  This  man,  with  his 
wife,  set  about  discovering  the  authors  of  these  evils.  With  this  in- 
tent, they  made  a  rye-cake,  which  they  compounded  with  the  urine  of 
the  persons  afflicted,  and  gave  it  to  a  dog  to  eat.  By  this  proceeding 
they  hoped  to  clear  the  eyes  of  the  bewitched  of  the  gross  films  of 
mortality,  and  enable  them  to  see  their  invisible  tormentors.  The 
incantation  took  effect,  and  the  first  person  accused  by  the  sufferers 
was  the  Indian  woman  herself.  She  was  committed  to  prison  imme- 
diately, and  persecuted  with  blows  and  otherwise,  in  order  to  extort 
confession,  and  to  compel  her  to  criminate  other  witches,  her  supposed 


THE    GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  165 

accomplices.  Under  this  discipline  it  is  not  wonderful  that  the  poor 
squaw  acknowledged  an  intercourse  with  the  Devil ;  after  which  sho 
was  publicly  sold  for  her  prison  fees. 

This  Mr.  Parris  was  a  resident  Presbyterian  clergyman  of 
Salem,  in  whose  family  these  witchcrafts  seem  to  have  origi- 
nated. And  this  ^^  rye-cake"  was  a  regularly  built  Presbyte- 
rian johnny-cake! 

Here,  on  page  21,  is  a  plate  representing  poor  Proctor 
pulling  hemp  without  a  foothold,  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Noyes,  a 
Presbyterian  clergyman,  refusing  to  pray  for  him,  though 
requested,  because  Proctor  would  not  own  himself  a  wizard, 
and  then  go  out  of  the  world  with  a  lie  in  his  mouth ! 

Here  is,  also,  another  work,  entitled  '^  Wonders  of  the 
Invisible  World,"  written  by  Robert  Calef,  a  Presbyterian 
merchant  of  Boston,  and  printed  in  1828 — -just  at  the  time 
this  man  Ross  began  to  figure  in  the  ministry!  This  is  a 
work  of  333  pages.  On  page  4  it  is  said,  in  reference  to 
these  New  England  witchcrafts  : 

Were  it,  as  we  are  told  in  ^yonders  of  the  Invisible  World,  '"that 
devils  were  walking  about  our  streets  with  lengthened  chains,  making 
a  dreadful  noise  in  our  ears,  and  brimstone  (even  without  a  metaphor) 
was  making  a  horrid  and  a  hellish  stench  in  our  nostrils;"  and  "that 
the  Devil,  exhibiting  himself  ordinarily  as  a  black  man,  had  decoyed 
a  fearful  knot  of  proud,  fi'oward,  ignorant,  envious,  and  malicious 
creatures  to  enlist  themselves  in  his  horrid  service,  by  entering  their 
names  in  a  book  tendered  unto  them,  and  that  they  have  had  their 
meetings  and  sacraments,  and  associated  themselves  to  destroy  the  kingdom 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  in  these  parts  of  the  world." 

What  a  remarkable  coincidence  is  here  brought  to  light ! 
When  the  Devil  came  into  New  England,  near  two  centuries 
ago,  to  try  and  destroy  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
he  came  in  the  person  of  a  '^hlach  many  When  he  revived 
the  work  in  Tennessee  and  Virginia,  in  1846,  he  came  in  the 
person  of  a  '■^ nigger'^  again. 

I  now  hold  in  my  hands  the  second  of  two  sermons  delivered 
in   Cincinnati  in  March,   1846,  in   the   First   Presbyterian 


166       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

Church,  by  Joseph  L.  Wilson,  D.D.,  the  head  and  front  of 
the  Old  School  party  in  the  United  States,  up  to  the  day  of 
his  recent  death.  This  is  the  second  sermon,  and  Dr.  Wilson 
says,  in  the  opening  paragraph : 

Having  before  proved  the  reality  of  witchcraft,  and  given  examples 
of  its  practical  effects  as  an  art,  among  pagans,  infidels,  and  several 
sorts  of  nominal  Christians,  I  shall  now  attempt  to  show  more  fully 
the  operation  of  this  art  in  the  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy  expressed  in 
our  text. 

And  as  a  part  of  this  Presbyterian  game  of  sorceri/,  necro- 
mancy, etc.,  I  will  introduce  the  case  of  Doctor  Ashbel 
Green,  a  distinguished  Presbyterian  clergyman  who  recently 
departed  this  life  in  Philadelphia,  and,  I  hope,  has  gone  to 
heaven,  notwithstanding  his  familiarity  with  evil  spirits  in 
this  life !  Dr.  Green  was  once  the  editor  of  the  organ  of  his 
Church,  in  Philadelphia ;  at  another  time  he  was  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Princeton  Theological  Seminary;  and  he  has  been 
the  Moderator  of  the  General  Assembly.  He  reflected  upon 
the  subject  of  necromancy  and  sorcery  until  he  finally  con- 
cluded that  he  was  a  veritable  teapot,  and  so  declared  himself 
from  the  pulpit.  He  would  place  one  hand  on  his  hip,  so  as 
to  form  the  handle — the  other  arm  he  would  elevate  to  an 
angle  of  45  degrees,  and  declare  it  to  be  the  sjjouf.  The 
opposite  leg  from  the  spout  he  would  give  a  tilt,  and  make  an 
efl'ort  to  pour  out  the  tea ! 

But  let  us  come  still  nearer  home.  Who  are  the  editors 
of  the  Calvinistic  Magazine?  Here  are  the  names — Isaac 
Anderson,  Fred.  A.  Ross,  James  King,  and  James 
M' Chain.  Listen  to  me  while  I  take  them  up,  one  by 
one,  and  show  how  they  stand  related  to  witchcraft,  sorcery, 
necromancy,  and  other  ^^peculiarities"  of  Presbyterian- 
ism! 

And,  first,  as  to  Doctor  Anderson :  he  is  known  to  be  the 
master-co/i/wror  in  East  Tennessee,  excepting  always  old  Geo. 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  157 

Wright,  of  Mossy  Creek.  I  hold  in  my  hands  two  of  the 
Doctor's  letters  to -old  George,  in  his  own  handwriting,  in 
which  he  presses  him  to  visit  Maryville,  and  take  with  him 
his  favorite  divining-rod — a  peach-tree  rod — and  assist  him 
in  finding  some  stolen  money,  taken  from  the  house  of  a  Mr. 
Thompson,  of  that  place,  whilst  at  church  on  Sahbath !  Pie 
urges  old  George,  because  he  says  he  is  known  to  be  ^^a 
master-hand  in  the  art,''  and  because  it  is  a  part  of  their 
creed  of  sorceries,  that  if  the  money  be  removed  from  where 
it  was  first  deposited  after  it  was  stolen,  it  would  be  impossi- 
ble to  find  it!  These  letters  bear  date  May  26th,  1847,  and 
Jmie  7th,  1847.  They  have  both  been  published  in  my 
'^  Review,'^  and  their  genuineness  not  denied.  Here  they  are 
— any  gentleman  is  welcome  to  inspect  them !  In  addition  to 
these  letters,  the  Doctor  wrote  to  Anderson  Mathes,  a  Presby- 
terian clergyman  who  died  in  Rogersville,  of  consumption, 
and  sent  to  heaven,  by  the  dying  man,  a  whole  batch  of 
local  news  relative  to  Blount  county — as  if  the  inhabitants  of 
heaven  cared  more  about  Blount  than  any  other  county  in 
the  Lord's  moral  vineyard !  And  yet  Ross  and  his  party  talk 
about  "Wesley's  not  doubting  Swedenborg's  claim  to  visions, 
and  intercourse  with  departed  spirits ! 

This  same  Dr.  Anderson  undertook  to  find  a  stolen  horse  at 
a  Presbyterian  camp-meeting,  a  few  years  ago,  by  divining 
with  his  peach-tree  rod,  asking  the  rod  the  direction  which 
the  thief  went,  and  whether  he  was  black  or  white — the  rod 
meantime  giving  affirmative  or  negative  answers!  About  the 
same  time  he  visited  the  house  of  an  old  sorcerer  in  Knox 
county,  and  took  with  him  the  plot  of  some  land  he  owned 
in  the  Chilhowee  mountains,  to  get  the  rod-diviner  to  tell 
him  where  he  might  dig  on  that  land  for  gold  or  silver — the 
land  being  at  least  thirty  miles  distant !  And  when  I  was  in 
Maryville  last  winter,  the  old  Doctor  had  commenced  trying 
to  mesmerize  I     How  far  he  has  progressed  in  that  art,  I  am 


158       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

not  able  to  say.  These  are  tlie  facts;  and  I  dare  a  denial  of 
them,  in  a  public  way,  by  a  responsible  man. 

The  next  editor  in  order  is  F.  A.  Ross.  But  do  you  intend 
to  charge  that  he  is  a  sorcerer?  exclaim  you.  Yes, I  do — or 
that  he  believes  in  witchcraft  and  necromancy.  He  has  long 
been  a  mcsmerizer ;  and  Louisa  Dickinson  and  Eliza  Neal, 
not  to  say  Polly  Gutliery,  of  Scott  county,  in  this  State,  could 
tell  of  his  faith  and  works  upon  this  subject.  But  last 
"Wednesday,  I  believe  it  was.  Miss  Cogliill,  a  beautiful  Pres- 
byterian girl  of  Kingsport,  and  a  pious  member  of  Boss's 
congregation,  had  an  heir,  which  was  murdered,  and  attempted 
to  be  buried  in  one  corner  of  a  smoke-house.  When  I  left 
Tennessee,  a  coroner's  jury  was  sitting  on  the  case.  All  I 
have  to  say  about  it  now  is,  that  this  young  lady  visited  Boss's 
house  a  great  deal,  and  rode  in  his  carriage.  I  will  add,  how- 
ever— and  let  Mr.  Boss  deny  the  fact  if  he  dare — that  NINE 
MONTHS  before  this  child  was  born,  Miss  Coghill  lay  at 
Boss's  home,  pretending  to  be  sick ! ! ! 

But  the  Presbyterians  of  Jonesborough  had  a  fair  or  a 
supper,  or  whatever  you  please  to  call  it,  the  proceeds  of 
which  were  to  be  applied  to  improvements  then  contemplated 
on  their  house  of  worship.  The  supper  was  one  dollar  per 
man  and  lady.  I  saw  Frederick  in  the  procession,  marching 
into  the  town-hall  with  a  lady  swinging  to  each  arm.  They 
all  paid  their  money.  Next  to  the  supper,  the  arrival  of  a 
mail  was  announced,  and  letters  were  handed  out,  and  postage 
demanded.  Then  came  a  fortune-teller,  in  the  person  of  a 
dead  doll — a  large  eastern  doll  of  wax — placed  upon  a  stand, 
telling  gentlemen  and  ladies  fortunes  for  fifty  cents,  cash 
in  hand.  I  was  told  that  Frederick  planked  up  an  eagle  half 
dollar,  and  had  his  fortune  told  by  a  dead  doll,  holding  his 
ear  down  to  receive  the  news !  1  have  tried  hard  to  learn 
what  this  little  glass-eyed  sister  told  him,  but  he  refuses  to 
tell.     I  believe  she  whispered  these  words  in  his  ear  ;  "Fred- 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  159 

erich  Augustus!  in  1847  and  '48,  Brownlow  is  to  get  after 
you  with  a  sharp  stick,  and  such  another  time  you  never  had 
in  this  life  !" 

But  is  James  King  a  sorcerer,  or  does  he  work  with  a 
diviner's  rod?  He  does  !  I  know  Mr.  King,  and  know  him 
to  be  a  clever  man  personally.  The  meanest  act  I  ever  knew 
him  guilty  of,  was  to  be  associated  with  an  unprincipled  free 
negro  in  the  editorial  management  of  the  dirty  Magazine  I 
hold  in  my  hand  ! 

Mr.  King  once  found  a  silver  mine,  near  where  he  lives,  by 
working  a  peach-tree  rod ;  and  sold  an  interest  in  it  to  a  Mr. 
Preston,  of  Abingdon,  and  another  to  Colonel  White,  of  the 
same  place ;  and  although  his  silver  turned  out  to  be  iron,  he 
demanded  his  pay,  and,  as  I  am  informed,  received  about  two 
THOUSAND  DOLLARS  for  his  discovcrics  made  with  a  diviner's 
rod!  This  is  more  than  all  the  Methodists  on  earth  ever 
made  by  sorcery  !  Now,  are  they  not  a  pretty  pack  to  talk 
about  Mr.  Wesley  believing  in  witchcraft  ? 

To  conclude,  what  shall  I  say  of  James  McChain?  I 
confess  to  you  frankly,  that  I  know  nothing  about  the  man, 
only  that  he  is  a  weak  brother,  having  scarcely  sense  enough 
to  practice  the  enchanted  frauds  of  the  marvellous  believers  in 
witchcraft.  That  he  too,  is  a  believer,  I  have  no  doubt,  or  he 
could  not  be  a  sound  Presbyterian.  I  don't  suppose  he  serves 
as  an  editor,  but  is  thrown  in  to  make  up  the  number ;  and  is 
required  to  sneeze  every  time  Mr.  Ross  takes  snuff! 

I  have  now  concluded  my  Address;  and  although  my  voice 
has  held  up,  as  it  usually  does,  yet  I  am  greatly  exhausted,  as 
you  perceive.  The  heat  has  been  oppressive ;  and  the  labor 
of  speaking  in  the  open  air  so  long  and  so  loud,  very  severe. 
But  the  cause  is  a  good  one,  worthy  suffering  in ;  and  I  make 
no  complaint.  I  thank  you,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  one  and 
all,  for  the  patient  and  attentive  hearing  you  have  given  me 
on  this  occasion. 


160  THE    (JIIKAT    IRON    WHKKL    EXAMINED. 

Ji^"  At  the  close  of  tliis  A<klress,  tlic  following  resolutions 
were  offered  for  adoption  by  J.  W.  Schoolficld;  and  being 
seconded,  Kev.  Cr.  K.  Snapp  took  the  vote  of  the  audience : 

•  Resolrcd,  That  tlie  tlianhs  of  tlie  ISIctliodists,  and  the  frionds  of 
Mctliodism,  now  iissi-mhled  nt  this  camp-around,  bo  and  they  are 
hereby  tendered  to  llev.  W.  G.  Brownlow,  for  his  able  defence  of  our 
much-loved  doctrines,  and  of  the  venerated  memory  of  our  sainted 
founiler,  and  of  our  yet  more  cherished  and  liighly-prized  characters, 
against  the  vile  and  ribald  aspersions  of  Frederick  A.  Ross,  and  bis 
endorsers — the  members  of  the  East  Tennessee  Synod — who  have 
willingly  become  the  tools  or  partners  in  the  slanders  of  their  more 
sable,  yet  still  more  able  and  accomplished  leader,  in  sophistry,  false- 
hood, and  deti-actioii. 

Resolved,  That  the  editors  of  the  Methodist  Episcopalian,  the  Jones- 
borough  Wliig,  and  Jonesborough  lleview,  be  requested  to  give  the 
foregoing  resolution  an  insertion  in  their  respective  publications. 

Staley's  Creek  C.  G.,  Smythe  co.,  Va.,  July  9th,  1848. 


REPLY. 

I  thank  the  gentlemen  who  have  moved  and  seconded  the 
adoption  of  the  resolution  just  read,  and  for  the  compliment 
paid  me  tberein — all  of  which  has  been  without  agency  of 
mine,  or  previous  knowledge  of  such  an  intention.  But  I 
thank  this  large  assemblage  of  ladies  and  gentlemen  still  more 
sincerely,  for  the  unanimity  and  alacrity  with  which  they  have 
adopted  them.  Their  adoption  has  been  like  that  of  the 
endorsement  of  what  T  have  this  day  made  war  upon,  by  tho 
Athens  Synod — it  has  been  ^Hcith  ahwlute  wianimity  !''  I 
will  not  disguise  the  fact,  although  I  am  not  a  very  vain  man. 
that  this  compliment  is  acceptable  to  me  ;  and  the  more  grati- 
fying, coming,  as  it  does,  from  so  many  ladies  and  gentlemen 
of  the  first  respectability  in  our  county. 

I  beg,  however,  to  state  to  the  members  and  friends  of  the 
Methodist  Church  present,  that  they  are  under  no  sort  of 
obligations  to  me  for  any  services  they  may  have  supposed  me 
to  render  the  Church,  here  or  elsewhere.  I  have  done  nothing 
more  than  my  duty — nothing  more  than  I  am  prepared  to  do 


THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED.  161 

at  all  times^  in  all  places,  and  at  all  hazards,  under  like  cir- 
cumstances of  offence,  and  against  any  combination  of  wicked 
men  and  devils !  What  I  have  said  and  done,  it  is  the  duty 
of  every  ]Methodist  preacher  to  do — a  duty  they  owe  to  the 
ashes  of  the  venerable  dead — a  Wesley,  an  Asbury,  and  a 
host  of  others — whose  souls  are  at  peace  with  God,  while  their 
reputations  are  assailed  by  these  hell-hounds  of  sectarian 
malice !  Were  I  to  sit  quietly  by  my  fireside,  at  home,  or 
look  tamely  on  at  all  this  abuse  of  my  female  relatives  and 
acquaintances,  I  should  be  ashamed  to  look  one  of  them  in  the 
face  when  I  might  chance  to  meet  with  them  ! 

The  speech  you  have  just  responded  to,  is  substantially  the 
same  which  I  have  been  delivering  for  the  last  two  years,  to  so 
many  thousand  persons,  in  Tennessee  and  Virginia.  And  I 
remark,  with  gratitude  to  God,  that  during  all  that  time  I 
have  been  but  once  interrupted  by  rain,  (at  Greenville,  Tenn.,) 
and  never  have  had  so  much  as  a  bad  cold  to  prevent  my 
speaking. 

You  have  alluded,  classically  enough,  to  the  "sable  leader" 
of  the  Athens  Synod,  in  this  work  of  falsehood  and  detraction. 
The  fact  of  the  copper  color^  the  icoolly  head,  and  other 
similar  appendages  of  the  negro,  which  cling  to  this  Rev. 
Malungcon,  notwithstanding  his  Caucasian  features,  in  the 
general,  should  be  kept  prominently  before  the  proud,  spirited, 
and  high-minded  Virginian.  Let  the  distinction  of  color  be 
kept  up,  and  let  our  identity  as  a  race  of  white  men  be  pre- 
served. Let  the  Presbyterians  of  Marion  trample  upon  mar- 
riage relations,  despise  the  distinction  between  white  and 
colored  people,  and  bid  defiance  to  the  powers  of  enlightened 
society,  if  they  choose ;  but  let  us,  my  friends,  have  more 
self-respect  than  to  imitate  their  example. 

Peace  is  desirable ;  and  if  our  Presbyterian  friends  want  it, 
let  them  choke  off,  and  choke  down,  this  '^  sable  leader"  of 
theirs,  and  cease   to  uphold  him  in  his  outrageous    course 


162  THE    GREAT    IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

Then,  and  not  till  then,  can  they  have  peace,  unless  they 
conquer  a  peace,  which  they  can  never  do  !  You  will  hear 
much  said  about  my  abuse  on  this  occasion.  I  have  been 
severe,  and  I  intended  to  be  severe;  because  I  have  been 
replying  to  publications  which  teem  with  the  most  vulgar  and 
abusive  language,  and  with  the  vilest  and  meanest  insinuations 
against  our  entire  ministry  and  membership.  I  have  been 
replying  to  a  slanderer,  who  delights  in  fishing  up  from  the 
seu'crs  of  all  the  corrupt  writers  against  Methodism,  every 
vile  slander  and  false  insinuation  that  they  have  set  afloat. 
This  is  the  natural  aliment  on  which  Ross  lives.  His  lan- 
guage is  that  of  a  peculiar  dialect,  used  by  the  bar-room  bully 
and  street  loafer.  He  is  the  embodied  personification  of  all 
my  conceptions  of  a  villain.  He  is  the  living  picture  of 
moral  death  —  a  travelling  monument  of  the  wrath  of  an 
oifended  God,  and  a  fearful  witness  to  the  truth  of  the  words 
of  inspiration,  which  assert  that  the  heart  of  man  is  despe- 
rate!?/ wicked!  Yes!  his  heart,  like  his  complexion,  is 
bronzed  and  burnt  to  blackness  by  crime ;  and  can  now  be 
seen  in  his  wild  and  fierce  black  eye,  glowing  with  a  fire 
approaching  to  ferocity !  His  voice,  everywhere  raised  to  a 
pitch  of  deadly  passion,  is  constantly  heard,  like  the  hoarse 
croaking  of  some  bird  of  ill-omen  I 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  163 


CHAPTER  VII. 

State  of  human  society  calls  for  controversy — The  Methodist  creed 
not  Calvinistic,  as  falsely  alleged  by  Graves — Methodist  Articles  of 
Religion — What  Calvinism  is,  and  with  whom  it  originated — Ameri- 
can Baptists  are  generally  Calvinistic — Testimony  of  Elder  Howell 
— The  Philadelphia  Baptist  Confession  of  Faith — Thomas  Jefferson 
and  the  Five  Points  of  Calvinism — Testimony  of  Buck  and  Watson 
to  the  effect  that  Baptists  are  Calvinists — Further  proof  from  the 
"  Baptist  Watchman" — Ranting  about  Baptism — Abusive  spirit  of 
Calvinism — A  sound  system  of  theology  offered  to  the  Baptists ! 

"Were  the  state  of  human  society  such  as  to  unite  all  hearts 
in  one  common  bond  of  love — that  Divine  love  which  creates 
an  entire  union  of  sentiment,  aflfection,  and  design — religious 
disputes  would  be  at  an  end,  and  those  halcyon  days  so  long 
predicted,  and  so  earnestly  desired,  would  be  realized;  but  so 
long  as  error  and  bigotry,  sin  and  its  attendant  miseries,  are 
in  the  world,  and  so  long  as  such  violent,  ill-tempered  men  as 
Graves  are  put  forward  as  leaders  of  sects,  so  long  will  there 
be  a  call  for  controversy ;  and  moreover,  he  who  conducts  it 
in  accordance  with  truth  and  righteousness,  renders  an  im- 
portant service  to  the  Church  and  to  the  world. 

I  am  not  among  those,  however,  who  consider  all  religious 
controversy,  in  the  present  state  of  society,  detrimental  to  the 
cause  of  Christ.  In  addition  to  its  eliciting  truth  by  the 
exposure  of  error,  it  has  a  tendency  to  exercise  the  human 
faculties — to  make  mankind  think  deeply  and  accurately,  and 
to  dive  cautiously  and  understandingly  into  the  great  sea  of 
theological  truth.    No  one  can  read  the  Sacred  Scriptures  with 


164       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

care,  and  fail  to  perceive  that  the  inspired  writers  carried  on 
a  perpetual  warfare  apjainst  such  abettors  of  error  as  this  man 
Graves :  that  they  were  commissioned  especially  to  denounce 
all  false  gods,  false  doctrines  and  systems  of  religion,  and  bad 
men,  who  were  going  about  'teaching  the  doctrines  of  devils." 
Nor  was  Jesus  Christ  himself,  the  adorable  author  of  Chris- 
tianity, less  engaged  in  controverting  the  erroneous  systems 
of  religion  adopted  by  the  Pharisees  and  Sadducees,  and  other 
heretical  sects  which  had  sprung  up  among  the  Jews;  and 
never  were  blended  together  more  wisdom  and  meekness  than 
were  exemplified  in  the  sharp  controversies  which  He  carried 
on  with  such  vile  adversaries  as  this  man  Graves  !  Moreover, 
his  chosen  instrument,  St.  Paul,  the  apostle  extraordinary  to 
the  Gentiles,  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  his  Divine  Master, 
carried  on  a  deeply  argumentative  and  strenuous  controversy 
with  both  Jews  and  Gentiles.  Nor  were  the  immediate  suc- 
cessors of  the  apostles  less  assiduous  in  defending  the  truth 
against  the  malevolent  attacks  of  Jewish  and  Pagan  adver- 
saries. Look  next  at  the  memorable  era  of  the  Keformation ! 
The  greater  proportion  of  the  writings  of  Luther  and  Calvin 
are  not  only  strictly  controversial,  but  absolutely  severe.  Nor 
was  there  a  less  urgent  call  for  wielding  the  sword  of  contro- 
versy in  the  days  of  John  Wesley,  than  there  was  in  the  days 
of  Martin  Luther.  The  temple  of  error  and  superstition  was 
rebuilt  in  England  in  "Wesley's  day,  and  with  his  controversial 
arm  he  demolished  it.  And  now,  in  America,  in  the  glori- 
ous nineteenth  century,  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  the 
atoning  blood,  the  Direct  Witness  of  the  Spirit,  and  holiness 
of  heart  and  life,  are  openly  and  violently  assailed  by  such 
unregenerate  adversaries  as  Graves,  Ross,  and  others,  who  are 
pouring  forth  floods  of  calumny  against  Wesley,  and  all  who 
dare  to  lift  their  warning  voices  in  favor  of  these  great  cardi- 
nal doctrines  of  the  Bible. 

But  recalling  myself  from  this  digression,  which  has  been 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  165 

by  way  of  preliminary,  I  will  notice  the  attack  of  Mr.  Graves 
upon  the  doctrines  of  the  Methodist  Church.  The  heading 
of  his  twenty-sixth  chapter,  found  on  page  327,  sufficiently 
indicates  its  contents.  It  is  in  these  words :  '^The  peculiar 
doctrines  and  usages  of  Methodism  —  a  Calvinistic  creed,  a 
Popish  liturgy,  and  an  Arminimi  clergy  V  Not  content  with 
this  slanderous  representation  of  Methodist  doctrines,  he 
renews  the  assault,  and  multiplies  his  misrepresentations,  in 
his  thirty-ninth  chapter,  commencing  on  page  500.  To  show 
his  points,  and  convict  him  of  gross  falsehoods,  it  is  only 
necessary,  with  the  intelligent  reader,  to  give  the  heading  of 
this  chapter,  which  is  as  follows  : 

THE  "CALVINISM"  OF  THE  CREED  AND  THE  ARMINIANISM 
OF  THE  CLERGY. 

The  "Articles  of  Religion"  Calvinistic — They  preclude  the  idea  of  the 
ultimate  apostasy  of  the  believer — The  ground  of  Justification 
examined — The  scriptural  argument — The  Methodist  clergy  preach 
against  their  own  creed  as  well  as  the  teachings  of  Holy  Scripture 
— Revival  and  camp-meeting  excitements — The  doctrine  of  apostasy 
made  necessary — The  tendency  of  such  teaching  and  doctrine  is  to 
make  infidels. 

Now,  it  is  remarkable  that  any  man  should  rise  up,  at  this 
late  day,  and  charge  directly  upon  the  Methodist  Church  that 
she  teaches  a  Calvinistic  creed;  that  her  Articles  of  Religion 
are  Calvinistic;  and  that  the  tendency  of  her  doctrines  is  to 
make  infidels!  I  say  this  is  strange,  because  it  is  known  to 
every  intelligent  man  in  the  nation,  that  every  Protestant 
denomination  in  Europe  and  America  has,  to  a  greater  or  less 
extent,  made  war  upon  Methodism  because  Methodism  is 
directly  at  war  with  all  the  distinctive  features  of  Calvinism  ! 
All  well-informed  men  know  that  the  doctrines  of  the  Wes- 
leyan  Methodists  are  the  same  as  the  Church  of  England,  as 
set  forth  in  her  liturgy,  articles,  and  homilies,  and  that  these 
are  all  at  war  with  Calvinism  proper. 

The  title-page  of  every  Methodist  Discipline  in  America 


166  THE    GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

runs  thus :  ^'  The  Doctrines  and  Discipline  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church."  And  after  a  very  brief  account  of  the 
origin  of  the  Church,  the  first  section,  covering  ten  pages, 
sets  forth,  in  unmistakable  terms,  her  ^^ Articles  of  Religion^'' 
numbering  twenty-five  articles.  They  are  there  to  be  seen 
and  consulted  by  all  who  desire  to  know  what  her  faith  is. 
Not  a  few  of  these  "Articles"  make  war,  either  directly  or 
indirectly,  upon  some  peculiarity  of  Calvinism.  And  for  the 
information  of  such  as  may  not  be  able,  for  the  moment,  to 
lay  their  hands  on  this  little  book  of  Discipline,  I  will  state 
the  heading  of  each  Article,  as  laid  down  in  the  book : 

1.  Of  Faith  in  the  Holy  Trinity. 

2.  Of  the  Word,  or  Son  of  God,  who  was  made  very  Man. 

3.  Of  the  Pvesurrection  of  Christ. 

4.  Of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

5.  Of  the  SujBiciency  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  for  Salvation. 

6.  Of  the  Old  Testament. 

7.  Of  Original  or  Birth  Sin. 

8.  Of  Free  Will. 

9.  Of  the  Justification  of  Man. 

10.  Of  Good  Works. 

11.  Of  Works  of  Supererogation. 

12.  Of  Sin  after  Justification. 

13.  Of  the  Church. 

14.  Of  Purgatory. 

15.  Of  speaking  in  the  Congregation  in  such  a  Tongue  as  the  People 

understand. 

16.  Of  the  Sacraments. 

17.  Of  Baptism — {not  acceptable  to  Baptists,  by  any  means!) 

18.  Of  the  Lord's  Supper. 

19.  Of  Both  Kinds. 

20.  Of  the  one  Oblation  of  Christ,  finished  upon  the  Cross. 

21.  Of  the  Marriage  of  Ministers. 

22.  Of  the  Rites  and  Ceremonies  of  Churches. 

23.  Of  the  Rulers  of  the  United  States  of  America. 

24.  Of  Christian  Men's  Goods. 

25.  Of  a  Christian  Man's  Oath. 

Reader,  procure  this  book  of  Discipline,  as  published  by 
the  General  Conference,  either  North  or  South;  examine 
these  "Articles  of  Religion,"  and  see  if  they,  or  any  one  of 
them,  in  the  remotest  degree  favors,  much  less  teaches  Cal- 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  167 

vinism.  Examine  our  standard  works,  such  as  "Wesley's 
Sermons,  Notes  on  .the  New  Testament,  and  other  miscella- 
neous works,  Watson's  Theological  Institutes,  Benson's  Ser- 
mons, Fletcher's  Checks,  Clarke's  Commentary  on  the  Eible, 
and  see  if  they  do  not  all  war  upon  Calvinism,  showing  the 
system  up  as  unscriptural,  absurd,  and  iniquitous ! 

Methodism  a  Calvinistic  creed !  Does  Elder  Graves  know 
what  constitutes  a  man  a  Calvinist?  The  name  of  Calv'inists 
was  first  given  to  those  who  embraced  the  doctrines  established 
at  Geneva  by  John  Calvin,  the  celebrated  reformer  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  More  especially,  since  the  meeting  of  the 
Synod  of  Dort,  the  name  has  been  applied  to  all  who  embrace 
Calvin's  leading  views  of  the  gospel. 

Calvinists  belonging  to  different  sects  complain  much  of 
being  misunderstood  and  misrepresented,  and,  strange  to  say, 
they  generally  seek  to  conceal  their  real  sentiments !  How- 
ever, it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  those  who  resolve  all 
the  wicked  motives  and  conduct  of  both  men  and  devils  into 
the  efficient  decrees  of  God,  should  labor  to  conceal  their 
sentiments,  or  hide  the  deformities  of  such  a  system.  Now, 
as  John  Calvin  will  be  allowed  by  all  to  be  a  competent 
teacher  of  Calvinism,  I  shall  contend  that  his  exposition  of 
the  doctrines  which  take  his  name  may  be  consulted  as  the 
most  satisfactory.  Therefore  I  shall  commence  with  an  ex- 
tract or  two  from  his  own  Institutes.  He  teaches  Calvinism 
after  the  following  most  approved  style  : 

Predestination  we  call  the  eternal  decree  of  God,  by  which  he  hath 
determined  in  himself  what  he  would  have  to  become  of  every  indivi- 
dual of  mankind.  For  they  are  not  created  with  a  similar  destiny;  but 
eternal  life  is  ordained  for  some,  and  eternal  damnation  for  others. — 
Calvin's  Institutes,  vol.  ii.  page  420. 

We  afi&rm  that  this  counsel,  as  far  as  concerns  the  electa  is  founded 
on  his  gratuitous  mercy,  totally  irrespective  of  human  merit;  but  that, 
to  those  whom  he  devotes  to  condemnation,  the  gate  of  life  is  closed 
by  a  just  and  irreprehensible,  but  incomprehensible,  judgment.  In 
the  elect,  we  consider  calling  as  an  evidence  of  election,  and  justifica- 


168  THE    fiKEAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED. 

tion  as  another  token  of  its  manifestation,  till  they  arrive  in  glory, 
■which  constitutes  its  completion.  As  God  seals  the  elect  by  vocation 
and  justification,  so,  by  excluding  the  reprobate  from  the  knowledge 
of  his  name  and  the  sanctification  of  his  Spirit,  he  affords  an  indica- 
tion of  the  judgment  that  awaits  them. — Page  425. 

When  the  human  mind  hears  these  things,  its  petulance  breaks  all 
restraint,  and  it  discovers  as  serious  and  violent  agitation  as  if  alarmed 
by  the  sound  of  a  martial  trumpet.  Many,  indeed — as  if  they  wished 
to  avert  odium  from  God — aduiit  election  in  such  a  way  as  to  deny 
that  any  one  is  reprobated.  But  this  is  puerile  and  absurd;  because 
election  itself  could  not  exist  without  being  opposed  to  reprobation. 
God  is  said  to  separate  those  whom  he  adopts  to  salvation.  To  say 
that  others  obtain  by  chance,  or  acquire  by  their  own  efforts,  that 
which  election  alone  confers  on  a  few,  will  be  worse  than  absurd. 
Whom  God  passes  by,  therefore,  he  reprobates,  and  from  no  other 
cause  than  his  determination  to  exclude  them  from  the  inheritance 
which  he  predestines  for  his  children. — Page  442. 

Observe:  all  things  being  at  God's  disposal,  and  the  decision  of 
salvation  or  death  belonging  to  him,  he  orders  all  things  by  his  coun- 
sel or  decree  in  such  a  manner,  that  some  men  are  born  devoted  from 
the  icomb  to  certain  death,  that  his  name  may  be  glorified  in  their 
destruction. — Page  449. 

The  perplexity  and  hesitation  discovered  at  trifles  by  these  pious 
defenders  of  the  justice  of  God,  and  their  facility  in  overcoming  great 
difficulties,  are  truly  absurd.  I  inquire  again  how  it  came  to  pass 
that  the  fall  of  Adam,  independent  of  any  remedy,  should  involve  so 
many  nations,  with  their  infant  children,  in  eternal  death,  but  because 
such  was  the  will  of  God? — Page  450. 

Now  it  will  be  seen,  from  the  foregoing  extracts,  that  what- 
ever has  or  shall  come  to  pass  in  this  world,  whether  it  be 
good  or  bad,  proceeds  from  the  Divine  will  entirely,  and  is 
irrevocably  fixed  from  all  eternity :  God  having  secretly  pre- 
determined, not  only  the  adverse  and  prosperous  fortune  of 
every  person  in  the  world,  but  also  his  faith  and  infidelity , 
his  obedience  and  diwhedience,  and,  consequently,  his  ever- 
lasting happiness  or  misery  after  death;  which  fate  or  predes- 
tination it  is  not  possible,  by  any  foresight  or  wisdom,  to 
avoid  I  Methodism  recognizes  no  such  God  as  this,  believes 
in  none  such,  and,  consequently,  teaches  no  such  doctrines. 

But  Elder  Graves  wishes  to  impress  the  minds  of  his  nume- 
rous readers  with  a  belief  that  the  Baptist  Church  does  not  favor 
the  doctrine  of  Calvinian  reprobation.     I  had  a  controversy 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXA.^LLNED.  169 

with  the  Baptists  of  East  Tennessee  in  1841,  in  which 
Elders  Howell  and  Buck  took  part.  Mr.  Howell  used  these 
words  in  that  controversy: 

Every  man  who  knows  any  thing  at  all  about  our  Church  w  fully 
apprised  that  the  Baptists,  old  or  young,  never  did  believe  in  the  doc- 
trine of  Calvinian  reprobation. 

In  that  controversy  I  well  recollect  to  have  thrown  Elder 
Howell,  a  Baptist  minister  of  some  celebrity,  and  at  that  time 
the  '^  illustrious  predecessor"  of  Mr.  Graves  at  Nashville,  into 
spasms  of  ill-humor,  ay,  paroxysms  of  rage,  by  the  authori- 
ties I  adduced  to  prove  that  the  Baptist  churches  in  England 
and  America  held  occasional  fellowship  with  Calvinism.  The 
first  authority  I  adduced  was  Dr.  Waller,  writing  in  the  same 
^'Baptist  Banner"  at  Louisville,  only  three  weeks  before 
Elder  Howell's  denial,  given  above.  Dr.  Waller  is  a  Baptist 
minister  of  celebrity,  and  one  who,  I  shall  show  before  this 
work  is  completed,  has  been  at  war  with  Elder  Graves !  Dr. 
Waller  employed  this  language  : 

The  Baptists  have  only  to  adhere  to  their  true  sentiments,  as  drawn 
up  from  the  Bible,  as  set  forth  in  the  Philadelphia  Baptist  Confession 
of  Faith,  and  they  will  be  invulnerable. 

Dr.  Waller  says  that  the  "true  sentiments"  of  the  Baptist 
denomination  are  ''set  forth  in  the  Philadelphia  Confession 
of  Faith,''  and  that,  in  order  to  become  ''invulnerable"  as  a 
denomination,  they  have  only  to  "adhere"  to  those  senti- 
ments! This  Confession  of  Faith  I  have  examined  with 
much  care,  and  from  beginning  to  ending  I  find  it  to  be 
Calvinistic.  It  is  an  ancient  book.  It  was  first  adopted  in 
London,  by  a  convention  of  ministers  and  messengers,  in  the 
year  1689.  It  was  readopted  by  the  Philadelphia  Associa- 
tion in  1742,  more  than  one  hundred  years  ago,  and  took  the 
name  of  the  Philadelphia  Baptist  Confession  of  Faith.  So 
late  as  1829-30,  new  editions  of  it  were  issued,  and  the  work 
reendorsed.  I  could  give  copious  extracts  from  this  work, 
8 


170  THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED. 

but  the  following  will  be  as  much  as  the  admirers  of  Mr. 
Graves's  book  will  care  to  see  : 

OF    OOU'3    DECREE. 

By  the  decree  of  God  for  the  manifestation  of  his  glory,  some  men 
and  angels  are  predestinated  or  foreordained  to  eternal  life  through 
Jesus  Christ,  to  tlie  praise  of  his  glorious  grace;  others  being  left  to 
act  in  their  sin  to  their  condemnation,  to  the  praise  of  his  glorious 
justice. 

These  angels  and  men  thus  predestinated  and  foreordained  are  par- 
iicidarhj  and  imchangcablij  designed;  and  their  number  so  certain  and 
definite  that  it  cannot  be  cither  increased  or  diminished. 

As  obnoxious  in  its  nature,  and  ruinous  in  its  tendency,  as 
is  this  doctrine  of  the  Baptist  Confession  of  Faith,  it  is  the 
standard  of  Faith  in  that  Church;  and,  as  a  doctrinal  system, 
it  has  yet  to  be  abandoned  by  that  Church.  I  have  never 
met  with  an  avowal  more  decidedly  Calvinistic  than  the  one 
just  quoted.  It  is  strange,  therefore,  that  Baptists,  believing 
the  number  of  the  elect  is  "so  certain  and  definite  that  it 
cannot  be  either  increased  or  diminished,''  should  want  to 
send  missionaries  among  the  heathen,  or  elsewhere!  What 
good  can  missionaries  do,  if  this  doctrine  be  correct  ?  They 
cannot  increase  the  number  of  the  elect,  nor  can  they 
diminish  the  number  of  the  reprobates  !  Of  what  service 
can  even  the  labors  of  ministers  be,  either  in  preaching,  hap- 
tizingy  or  administering  the  Lord's  Supper,  if  the  destinies 
of  all  men  are  ah  ?ady  unchangeably  fixed  in  heaven  or  hell  ? 

See  what  Mr.  J  ?<:fferson  says  about  this  Baptist  doctrine ! 
In  a  letter  to  the  elder  Adams,  dated  April  11th,  1823,  he 
writes  as  follows : 

Tht  wish  expressed  in  your  last  favor,  that  I  may  continue  in  life 
and  hi  alth  until  I  become  a  Calvinist,  at  least  in  his  exclamation  of 
*^3fon  Dieu!  jusqxi'a  fuand."^  [My  God!  how  long!  is  the  French 
signification]  woiild  niake  me  immortal.  I  can  never  join  Calvin  in 
addressing  his  god.  lie  was  indeed  an  atheist,  which  I  can  never  be; 
or,  rather,  his  religion  was  dcemonism.  If  ever  man  worshipped  ft 
false  god,  he  did.  The  being  described  in  his  five  points  is  not  the 
God  whom  you  and  I  acknowledge  and  adore,  the  Creator  and  benevo- 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  171 

lent  governor  of  the  ■world,  but  a  daemon  of  malignant  spirit.  It 
would  be  more  pardonable  to  believe  in  no  God  at  all,  than  to  blas- 
pheme him  by  the  atrocious  attributes  of  Calvin. 

Some  of  my  readers  may  not  know  what  Mr.  Jefferson 
means  by  the  ^'  Five  Points  of  Calvinism.^'  I  will  state  them; 
but  before  doing  so,  I  will  premise  that  they  are  all  five  taught 
in  the  Baptist  Confession  of  Faith,  already  quoted  from.  The 
following  are  the  five  points  : 

1.  Unconditional  election  and  reprobation. 

2.  Christ  died  only  for  a  part,  viz.,  the  elect. 

3.  Total  depravity  of  man. 

4.  Irresistible  grace  to  bring  in  the  elect. 

5.  The  impossibility  of  falling  from  grace. 

Lest,  however,  Mr.  Graves  and  his  belligerent  associates 
may  assert  that  I  misrepresent  them,  I  will  bring  forth  fur- 
ther authority  to  prove  this  Church  Calvinistic.  I  submit 
the  following  extract  from  Buck's  Theological  Dictionary; 
and  Buck,  like  Jefi"erson,  was  any  thing  rather  than  a  Me- 
thodist : 

The  Baptists  subsist  under  two  denominations,  viz.,  the  Calvmisti- 
cal  and  the  Arminian.  The  Baptists  in  America,  and  East  and  West 
Indies,  are  chiefly  Calvinists,  and  hold  occasional  fellowship  with  the 
Particular  Baptist  churches  in  England. 

My  next  authority  is  Watson's  Theological  Dictionary^  an 
author  quoted  by  Mr.  Graves  in  his  crusade  against  Method- 
ism. It  is  a  settled  principle  in  the  legal  practice  of  the 
country,  that  a  client  cannot  avoid  the  force  of  the  testimony 
of  Ills  own  witness.     Mr.  Watson  says  : 

The  Baptists  in  England  form  one  of  the  three  denominations  of 
Protestant  dissenters.  The  Baptists  subsist  chiefly  under  two  deno- 
minations—  the  Particular,  or  Calvinistical,  and  the  General,  or 
Arminian.  The  former  is  by  far  the  most  numerous.  The  Baptists 
in  America,  and  in  the  East  and  West  Indies,  are  chiefly  Calvi>:ists. 

My  closing  authority  is  of  more  modern  date :  it  is  from 


172       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

the  ^^  Baptist  Watchman/'  of  Knoxville,  Tennessee,  for 
December,  1855,  edited  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  IIillsman,  a  Bap- 
tist minister  of  more  celebrity  than  any  one  in  East  Tennes- 
see. He  publishes  in  the  '' AVatchman,"  with  approbation, 
the  communications  of  a  Calvinistic  Baptist  loriter,  who 
laments  over  the  apostasy  of  many  of  his  Baptist  brethren  in 
the  ministry,  in  departing  from  the  good  old  doctrine  of 
election,  as  taught  by  the  Philadelphia  Confession  of  Faith. 
This  writer  says : 

I  hold — and  I  think  I  have  irrefutably  sustained  my  positions — to 
the  doctrine  of  unconditional,  personal,  and  eternal  election. — There  are 
MANY  OF  OUR  BRETHREN  THIS  DAY  who,  as  seriously  as  myself,  deplore 
the  Arminian  tendency  of  many  of  our  preachers  and  churches.  Well 
do  they  remember  the  former  temple  in  the  days  of  a  Mulkey  and  his 
faithful  coadjutors ;  and  when  they  compare  the  present  milk-and-cider 
theology  with  theirs,  they  are  like  the  ancient  Jews  at  the  remembrance 
of  their  former  temple — weep  bitterly.  Alas !  alas !  how  has  the  fine 
gold  become  dim  in  many  places  of  our  hill-country!  so  that  it  is 
difficult  to  tell  when  a  Baptist  minister  preaches,  except  he  gets  to 
ranting  about  Baptism,  I  say  this  with  no  disrespect  to  Baptism  :  it 
is  a  doctrine  of  the  Bible,  and  ought  to  be  preached ;  but  we  should 
not  forget,  at  the  same  time,  that  our  people  need  indoctrinating  upon 
more  subjects  than  baptism. 

Yes,  my  Baptist  brother,  your  people  need  "indoctrinating" 
upon  the  beauties  of  iinconditional  election  and  reprobation, 
as  set  forth  in  your  Philadelphia  Confession  of  Faith — your 
standard  of  doctrines !  I  have  no  doubt  that  a  hit  at  Graves 
was  here  intended,  for  his  dishonesty  in  seeking  to  dodge  the 
Calvinism  of  his  creed,  and  even  denying  the  faith !  I  would 
that  all  Baptist  preachers  were  honest  like  this  writer,  who  is 
himself  understood  to  be  a  preacher,  and  would  state  their 
odious  doctrine  as  they  hold  it !  He  even  charges  them  with 
hypocrisy,  in  holding  one  creed  and  preaching  another.  He 
gives  them  as  a  specimen  of  blunt,  honest  Calvinistic  preaching, 
the  discourses  of  old  Jonathan  Mulkey  and  his  "faithful 
coadjutors"  in  the  work  of  preaching  and  defending  "imco7i- 


THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  173 

ditional,  personal,  and  eternal  election  F'  I  knew  Mr.  Mul- 
kej,  and  many  of  his  ^'faithful  coadjutors/'  and  I  will  bear 
them  witness  that  they  did  stand  square  up  to  this  ''fine 
gold,"  and  warred  like  men  against  the  ''milk-and-cider 
theology"  of  those  who  offered  Christ  to  all,  and  held  that 
men  were  accountable  for  their  base  acts  of  crime,  such  as 
stealing,  lying,  drunkenness,  perjury,  and  murder ! 

As  to  all  this  ^'  ranting  about  Baptism,"  it  is  certainly  un- 
called for,  even  if  Arminianism  be  true ;  but  in  the  event  that 
Calvinism  be  true,  it  is  ridiculous  to  baptize  at  all,  either  by 
immersion  or  any  other  mode.  If  men  are  "  unconditionally, 
personally,  and  eternally  elected,''  they  will  be  saved  if  they 
never  see  water,  and  die  drunk  in  the  bargain  !  If  uncondi- 
tionally elected — eternally  elected — personally  and  individu- 
ally elected,  the  baptism  of  old  Zcke  Holliman  was  just  as 
valid  as  that  of  the  old  preacher  in  the  wilderness  whose  meat 
was  locusts  and  wild  honey  !  On  the  other  hand,  if  ^'uncon- 
ditionally, personally,  and  eternally"  reprobated,  to  immerse 
a  man  seventy  times  seven  in  the  veritable  Jordan  would  be 
of  no  avail. 

Alas !  how  much  more  manly  and  Christian-like  it  would 
have  been  for  Elder  Graves  to  have  stated,  with  the  candor 
of  this  writer  in  the  '^  Watchman,"  that  some  of  his  brethren 
had  become  ashamed  of  the  doctrine  of  '^  unconditional,  per- 
sonal, and  eternal  election,"  and  that  they  wished  to  repudiate 
their  Philadelphia  Confession  of  Faith — that  he  had  himself 
renounced  the  doctrine,  if  such  had  been  the  fact,  than 
falsely  to  accuse  the  Methodists  of  holding  it,  when,  as  he 
knew,  of  all  men  living,  Methodist  preachers,  from  Wesley 
down,  are  the  most  zealous  opposers  of  the  doctrine  !  The 
only  interruption  of  years  of  Christian  love  and  fellowship 
between  Wesley  and  Whitp^eid  was  on  account  of  Calvinism — 
the  former  opposing,  and  the  latter  advocating  the  abominable 
doctrine !     That  Mr.  Graves  is  at  heart  a  Calvinist  is  evident 


174       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

from  the  spirit  dififused  throughout  all  that  he  says  or  writes. 
Hear  what  Mr.  Jefferson  says  on  this  point,  in  a  letter  to 
Dr.  Cooper,  bearing  date  November  2,  1822  : — 

The  blasphemy  and  absurdity  of  the  five  points  of  Calvin,  and  the 
impossibility  of  defending  them,  render  their  advocates  impatient  of 
reasoning,  ii-ritable,  and  pi-one  to  denunciation  of  character. 

But  if  Mr.  Graves  and  his  jnous  coadjutors,  who  are  en- 
gaged in  circulating  this  slander  of  Methodism,  will  not  re- 
gard it  as  arrogant  in  me,  I  will  give  them,  in  a  nutshell, 
what  Methodists  do  hold  and  teach ;  and  in  so  doing,  I  will 
give  them  a  system  of  theology  which  they  may  rely  upon  as 
scriptural,  and  which  they  may  venture  to  preach  on  all  oc- 
casions, as  it  will  secure  to  them,  one  and  all,  "  a  conscience 
void  of  offence  toward  God  and  toward  man.'^ 

First,  then,  "go  teach  all  nations,"  without  any  sort  of  dis- 
guise or  concealment,  that  God  the  Father  loved  all  men — 
that  the  Son  atoned  for  all  men — that  the  Holy  G-host  en- 
lightens, quickens,  and  strives  with  all — and  that  all  wJio  ivill 
may  be  saved.  In  other  words,  teach  the  people  that  the 
moving  cause  of  the  salvation  of  men,  in  all  ages  and  coun- 
tries, is  the  love  of  God — that  the  meritorious  cause  of  their 
salvation  is  the  atonement  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ — that 
the  instrumental  cause  is  the  Spirit  and  providence  of  God, 
with  the  appointed  means  of  grace,  such  as  water  baptism, 
the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  prayer,  etc. ;  and,  finally, 
that  the  conditional  cause  is — not  immersion,  but  their  obe- 
dience to  the  prescribed  rules  of  faith  and  practice  which 
God  has  given  them  to  walk  by,  and  which  are  laid  down  in 
the  Scriptures,  in  the  Methodist  Discipline,  and  the  standard 
works  of  Methodism.  This  is  a  brief  but  orthodox  system  of 
theology,  and  it  is  one  in  the  maintenance  of  which  God  will 
bless  the  laborer  and  prosper  the  cause  in  his  hands.  And  it 
is  alone  under  the  preaching  of  these  doctrines — summarily 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  175 

contaioed  and  comprehensively  expressed  iu  the  foregoing 
sentences — that  God  does  revive  his  work.  God  never  com- 
missioned any  man  to  preach  a  limited  atonement — he  never 
sanctioned  the  doctrine  by  a  revival  of  his  work — he  never 
taught  the  doctrine,  nor  did  any  one  of  his  inspired  apostles; 
and,  finally,  no  young  convert  ever  believed  the  doctrine  ! 


17f)  THE   (HIEAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 


CHAPTEll  VIII. 

Close  Communion  considered — Baptists  more  unscripturally  close  than 
others — Derivation  of  the  term  Sacrament — Proselyting  practice  of 
Baptists — Robert  Hall,  a  distinguished  Baptist  preacher,  opposed 
to  Close  Communion — A  case  of  outrageous  bigotry  and  Close  Com- 
munion— Elders  Graves,  Buck,  and  Howell,  for  Close  Communion — 
Baptism  essential  to  salvation,  both  -with  Baptists  and  Roman  Ca- 
tholics— Close  Communion  leads  to  treason  against  God — Christ's 
kingdom  eternal — John's  kingdom  temporary — Terms  of  Methodist 
communion  reasonable  and  scriptural — They  exclude  no  orthodox 
Christians  in  good  standing  in  their  own  Churches. 

In  this  chapter  I  propose  to  say  all  that  I  deem  necessary 
to  be  said  on  the  subject  of  Close  Communion^  and  the  prac- 
tice of  both  the  Baptist  and  Methodist  Churches  in  America. 
No  preachers  of  any  denomination  are  so  clamorous  upon  the 
subject  of  ''  communion"  as  those  of  the  Baptist  denomina- 
tion. On  all  occasions,  during  their  communion  seasons,  pub- 
licly and  privately,  with  a  view  to  creating  an  impression 
favorable  to  their  illiberal  and  bigoted  practice,  they  regret,  in 
one  breath,  that  they  cannot  invite  their  brethren  of  other 
denominations  to  the  Lord's  table,  '^  because  they  have  never 
obeyed  the  command;'^  and,  in  the  next  breath,  they  justify 
their  niggardly  proscription  of  better  men  than  themselves 
by  quoting  that  scripture  which  teaches  that  ''it  is  not  meet 
to  take  the  children's  bread  and  give  it  to  dogs  !" 

On  page  470  of  the  "  Iron  Wheel,"  Mr.  Graves  heads  his 
thirty-eighth  chapter,  which  covers  thirty  pages  of  his  work, 
in  part,  with  these  remarkable  words — remarkable,  as  I  shall 
hereafter  show,  because  utterly  falsCj  and  uttered  with  a  per- 


THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  177 

feet  knowledge  of  their  having  no  foundation  in  truth,  be- 
cause he  has  seen  the  Discipline,  where  the  lie  is  given  direct 
to  his  assertions  : — 

The  3fe(hodists^  terms  of  communion — JVone  so  dose,  or  so  unscripturally 
close — They  invert  the  ordinances  and  violate  the  Divine  order — The  Dis- 
cipline forbids  Methodist  preachers  to  invite  members  of  other  denomina- 
tions— All  who  commune  with  Methodists  must  not  only  believe,  but  dress 
like  them. 

This  chapter  Mr.  Graves  concludes  after  this  fashion,  on 
page  496 ; — 

In  conchision,  let  me  ask,  in  all  earnestness,  why  will  Methodist 
preachers  continue  to  give  general  invitaCions  to  all  professed  Christ- 
ians, and  sinners  too,  and  especially  urge  Baptists  to  come  to  their 
tables,  and  when  ihcy  respectfully  decline,  charge  them  -with  an  un- 
christian spirit,  and  bigotry ;  and  when  Baptists  do  not  invite  them, 
abuse  them  for  uncharitablcness  and  want  of  liberality  ?  Methodist 
ministers  have  their  rules  and  directions,  as  we  have  seen,  and  they 
are  bound  to  their  strict  observance  by  all  the  sanctities  of  oaths  and 
promises ;  and  why  do  they  not  keep  them  touching  the  administra- 
tion of  the  Supper,  as  they  are  known  to  do  in  other  matters  ? 

Do  they  not  invite  Baptists  to  their  table  with  the  intent  to  in.sult 
us,  to  outrage  our  feelings,  and  to  prejudice  our  views  and  practice 
in  the  eyes  of  the  world  ?  For  me  to  ask  and  urge  a  man  or  woman 
to  do  that — to  participate  in  some  act  which  I  well  knew  bis  or  her 
principles  of  honor  or  virtue  would  not  allow,  and  which  I  well  knew 
that  man  or  woman  considered  criminal,  would  I  not  be  offering  a 
gross  insult  to  that  person  ?  And  suppose  I  had  been  repelled  and  re- 
buked again  and  again,  in  what  light  must  my  third  and  fifth  and 
twentieth  invitation  be  regarded  ! !  Do  not  Methodist  preachers  know 
full  well  that  Baptists  can  no  more  go  to  their  tables,  or  commune 
with  them,  without  a  surrender  of  all  their  principles  and  a  violation 
of  the  word  of  God,  etc. 

The  word  sacrament  is  derived  from  the  Latin  word  sacra- 
rnentinn,  which  signifies  an  obligation  or  oath.  The  word  was 
adopted  by  the  writers  of  the  Latin  Church  to  denote  those 
ordinances  of  religion  by  which  Christians  come  under  an  ob- 
ligation of  obedience  to  (jrod,  and  which  obligation,  they  sup- 
posed, was  equally  sacred  with  that  of  an  oath.  It  was  also 
applied  by  the  early  writers  of  the  Western  Church  to  any 
ceremony  of  our  holy  religion,  especially  if  it  were  figurative 


178       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

or  mystical.  But  a  more  definite  signification  of  this  word 
by  degrees  prevailed,  and  by  divines  of  modern  times  it  is 
used  in  a  strict  sense. 

Of  sacraments,  in  a  strict  sense  of  the  word,  Protestant 
Churches  admit  of  but  two;  and  a  greater  number  cannot 
well  be  made  out  from  Scripture.  These  are  Baptism  and 
the  Lord's  Supper.  This  latter,  it  is  admitted  by  all  de- 
nominations of  Christians,  with  the  exception  of  one,  is  of 
perpetual  obligation,  and  that  it  was  designed  by  its  Founder 
to  be  one  of  the  visible  expressions  of  our  faith  in  his  blood, 
and  of  our  fraternal  love  to  his  followers.  Do  Baptists — I 
mean  Close  Communion  Baptists  —  regard  it  in  this  light? 
Does  Elder  Graves  so  regard  it,  who,  by  his  writings  and  oral 
instructions,  seeks  to  widen  the  breach  between  Baptists  and 
others  ?  Let  his  illiberal  writings,  and  his  bigotry  and  abuse 
of  all  who  are  not  of  his  "faith  and  order,''  answer  these 
searching  interrogatories ! 

When  the  table  is  spread,  by  any  one  denomination,  and 
the  bread  and  wine  placed  thereon,  it  is  emphatically  the  table 
of  the  Lord,  and  not  the  table  of  that  particular  denomina- 
tion. The  duty  of  the  administrator  is  to  invite  all  orthodox 
Christians  who  are  in  good  standing  in  their  respective 
Churches — as  the  Methodists  invariahly  do — to  join  in  the 
commemoration  of  the  death  and  sufferings  of  Christ;  and  he 
is  not  at  liberty  to  withhold  the  sacred  elements  from  such, 
or  to  order  them  to  stand  aside,  as  the  Baptists  do  on  all 
occasions.  If  a  Baptist  commune  with  the  members  of  any 
one  of  our  evangelical  denominations,  acknowledged  by  Bap- 
tists themselves  to  be  orthodox  upon  all  questions  of  faith, 
(excepting  only  immersion,')  he  is  arraigned  before  his  Church 
upon  a  charge  of  immorality ;  and  if  he  refuse  to  acknow- 
ledge publicly  that  he  has  sinned  against  God  and  his  brethren, 
promising  to  do  so  no  more,  he  is  publicly  expelled,  his  name 
is  at  once  erased  from  the  Church  book,  and  he  is  told  that 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  179 

he  is  DO  longer  a  member,  entitled  to  the  privileges  of  God's 
people  !  And  why?  Because  he  had  communed  with — say, 
Methodist,  Presbyterian,  or  Lutheran  Cliristians!  Nor  would 
this  be  done  in  an  isolated  case,  but  thousands  would  be  ex- 
pelled, if  thousands  dared  thus  to  commune,  and  refused  to 
make  these  humiliating  confessions  —  acknowledging  really, 
to  appease  the  wrath  of  a  bigoted  membership,  what  they 
neither  felt  nor  believed  ! 

Mr.  Graves  speaks  frequently  of  ^^  the  proselyting  features 
of  Methodism,"  and  denounces  such  a  spirit,  as  though  his 
own  Church  is  not  more  deeply  imbued  with  this  hateful  spirit 
than  that  of  any  other  denomination  in  the  United  States  ! 
In  East  Tennessee,  it  is  within  my  own  certain  knowledge 
that  men  have  joined  the  Baptist  Church  with  an  express 
stipulation  that  they  were  to  be  allowed  the  privilege  of  com- 
muning with  other  Christian  denominations,  and  afterwards, 
when  the  flimsy  arguments  of  their  pastors  failed  to  convince 
them  that  such  acts  of  fellowship  were  sinful,  for  doing  so 
they  have  been  turned  out,  publicly  expelled,  by  the  very 
congregations  who  thus  received  them  !  The  truth  is,  that 
the  Baptists  in  East  Tennessee,  where  I  am  best  acquainted, 
frequently  hold  out  inducements  of  this  kind  to  get  persons 
of  liberal  and  charitable  views  to  join  them,<believing  that 
they  can  strengthen  them  in  the  faith  of  their  narrow-mind- 
edness ;  and  when  some  have  proved  refractory,  and  contended 
for  ^^open  communion,"  as  stated  before,  they  have  dismissed 
them  from  their  ranks  ! 

Let  me,  just  at  this  point,  ask  the  advocates  of  a  restricted 
communion,  including  the  '^  North  Carolina  Publishing  So- 
ciety of  the  Baptist  Church,"  a  few  plain  questions,  demand- 
ing of  them  categorical  answers.  What  real  difference  is 
there  between  attending  this  communion-service  with  Pedo- 
baptists,  and  other  exercises  of  devotion,  such  as  preaching, 
singing,  and  prayer  ?     What  difference  is  there  between  at- 


180  THE   OREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

tendiug  at  the  Lord's  table  witli  a  respectable  and  pious  Me- 
thodist or  Presbyterian,  and  uniting  with  him  in  a  prayer- 
meeting,  or  at  a  throne  of  grace,  in  a  revival,  in  behalf  of  a  few 
penitent  seekers  of  religion  ?  Why  preach,  exhort,  sing,  pray, 
shout,  shake  hands,  and  rejoice  with  Methodists  and  Presby- 
terians, at  one  of  their  protracted  meetings,  and  then  utterly 
refuse  to  commune  with  them,  or  let  them  commune  with 
you  ?  I  leave  the  Rev.  Robert  Hall,  an  educated  and 
pious  gentleman,  and  evidently  the  most  talented  minister  the 
Baptist  Church  ever  laid  claim  to,  to  answer  these  questions ; 
for  it  is  plain  to  be  seen  that  our  Tennessee  Baptists  will  not 
condescend  to  answer  them.  And  let  every  Baptist '' read, 
mark,  learn,  and  inwardly  digest'^  the  following  sensible,  ay, 
and  liberal  Christian  views  of  Mr.  Hall : — 

I  must  "beg  leave  to  notice  a  striking  inconsistence  in  the  advocates 
of  strict  communion.  Nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  the  com- 
munion of  saints  is  by  no  means  confined  to  one  particular  occasion, 
or  limited  to  one  transaction,  suoh  as  that  of  assembling  around  the 
Lord's  table  :  it  extends  to  all  the  modes  by  which  believers  recognize 
each  other  as  the  members  of  a  common  Head.  Every  expression  of 
fraternal  regard,  every  participation  in  the  enjoyments  of  social  wor- 
ship, every  instance  of  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  exerted  in  prayer  and 
supplication,  or  in  acts  of  Christian  sympathy  and  friendship,  as  truly 
belongs  to  the  communion  of  saints  as  the  celebration  of  the  eucha- 
rist.  In  truth,  if  we  are  strangers  to  communion  with  our  fellow- 
Christians  on  other  occasions,  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  enjoy  it  there ; 
for  the  mind  is  not  a  piece  of  mechanism  which  can  be  set  agoing  at 
pleasure,  whose  movements  are  obedient  to  the  call  of  time  and  place. 
Nothing  short  of  an  habitual  sympathy  of  spirit,  springing  from  the 
cultivation  of  benevolent  feeling  and  the  interchange  of  kind  offices, 
will  secure  that  reciprocal  delight,  that  social  pleasure,  which  is  the 
soul  of  Christian  communion.  Its  richest  fruits  are  frequently  re- 
served for  private  conference,  like  that  in  which  the  two  disciples 
were  engaged  in  tlieir  way  to  Emmaus,  when  their  hearts  burned 
within  them,  while  the  Lord  opened  to  them  the  Scriptures.  When 
they  take  sweet  counsel  together  as  they  go  to  the  house  of  God  in 
company,  when  they  bear  each  other's  burdens,  weep  with  those  that 
weep,  and  rejoice  with  them  that  rejoice,  say,  have  Christians  no  mu- 
tual fellowship?  Is  it  not  surprising  that,  losing  sight  of  such  ob- 
vious facts,  our  opponents  always  reason  on  the  subject  of  communion 
as  though  it  related  merely  to  the  sacrament  ?  In  every  other  par- 
ticular they  act  just  as  we  do. 


THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  181 

However  our  opponents  may  deviate  from  Scripture,  let  them  at 
least  be  consistent  with  themselves,  and  either  follow  out  their  own 
principles  to  their  just  consequence,  by  withholding  from  the  mem- 
bers of  other  denominations  every  token  of  fraternal  regard,  or  freely 
admit  them  to  the  Lord's  table.  As  the  case  stands  at  present,  their 
mode  of  proceeding  is  utterly  untenable.  In  a  variety  of  instances, 
they  indulge  themselves  in  those  acts  of  communion  with  Pedo- 
baptists  which  are  peculiar  to  Christians :  they  frequently  make  them 
their  mouth  in  addressing  the  Deity:  they  exchange  pulpits,  and 
even  engage  their  assistance  in  exercises  intended  as  a  preparation 
for  the  eucharist ;  and  after  lighting  the  flame  of  devotion  at  their 
torch,  they  most  preposterously  turn  round  to  inform  them  that  they 
are  not  worthy  to  participate.  It  would  be  difiicult  to  convihce  a 
stranger  to  our  practice  that  it  were  possible  to  be  guilty  of  such  an 
absurdity.  Is  the  observance  of  an  external  rite,  let  me  ask,  a  more 
solemn  part  of  religion  than  addressing  the  INIajesty  of  heaven  and 
earth  ?  And  shall  we  depute  him  to  present  our  prayers  at  his  foot- 
stool who  would  defile  a  sacrament  by  his  presence  ?  Suppose  them 
to  relax  from  their  rigor,  and  to  admit  pious  Pedobaptists  to  their 
fellowship  :  to  what  would  it  amount  ?  To  nothing  more  than  a  pub- 
lic acknowledgment  of  their  union  to  Christ,  and  their  interests  in  his 
benefits ;  and  as  they  fully  acknowledge  both,  why  scruple  to  do  it  at 
the  table  of  their  common  Lord  ?  Why  select  an  ordinance  desig^jed 
for  the  commemoration  of  the  dying  love  of  the  Redeemer  as  the  sig- 
nal for  displaying  the  banners  of  party  ;  and,  by  reviving  the  remem- 
brance of  difterences  elsewhere  consigned  to  oblivion,  give  the  utmost 
publicity  to  dissensions  which  are  the  reproach  of  the  Church  and 
the  triumph  of  the  world  ? 

I  have  charged  the  Baptists  of  this  country  with  selfish- 
ness, bigotry,  intolerance,  and  a  shameful  want  of  Christian 
liberality ;  but  /  am  regarded  as  an  enemy,  and  hence  full 
credit  is  not  given  to  what  I  say.  To  satisfy  others 
that  Baptists  are  chargeable  with  bigotry,  I  will  give  one 
more  quotation  from  the  illustrious  author  before  mentioned, 
Mr.  Hall  :* 

*  By  consulting  Parke  Godwin's  Universal  Biography,  the  reader 
will  see  that  INIr.  Hall  was  not  only  an.  eminent  Baptist  preacher  and 
distinguished  theological  writei",  but  his  father  before  him  was  a  Bap- 
tist preacher.  Robert  was  educated  in  a  Baptist  college  at  Bristol. 
He  was  once  a  Professor  in  King's  College  at  Aberdeen,  where  he  took 
the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts.  He  was  pastor  of  the  Baptist  congre- 
gation at  Leicester  for  twenty  years.  In  1826  he  became  the  Presi- 
dent of  Bristol  Academy,  and  the  pastor  of  Broadmead  Chapel.  He 
carried  his  congregations  with  him  in  favor  of  open  or  free  commu- 
nion.    He  died  in  1831^  aged  67.   (See  page  474  of  Godwin.) 


182  THE   GREAT   IRON    "SVHEEL   EXAMINED. 

The  very  appellation  of  Baptist,  togetbci-  with  the  tenets  by  -which 
it  is  det-iguated,  bccomo  associated  witli  the  idea  of  bigotry.  With 
mingled  surprise  and  indignation  others  behold  us  making  pretensions 
which  no  other  denomination  of  Protestants  assumes — placing  our- 
selves in  an  attitude  of  hostility  towards  the  whole  Christian  world, 
and  virtuallij  claiming  to  be  the  only  Church  of  Christ  upon  earth.  For- 
tified as  it  is  by  its  claims  to  antiquity  and  universality,  and  combining 
in  its  exterior  whatever  is  adapted  to  dazzle  the  imagination  and  cap- 
tivate the  senses,  there  is  yet  nothing  in  the  Church  of  Rome  that  has 
excited  more  indignation  and  disgust  than  this  very  pretension.  What 
then  must  be  the  sensation  produced  when,  in  the  absence  of  all  these 
advantages,  a  sect  comparatively  small  and  insignificant  erects  itself 
on  a  solitary  eminence,  from  whence  it  repels  the  approach  of  all 
other  Christians! 

I  will  here  give  an  instance  of  the  combined  bigotry  and 
despotism  of  Baptists,  which  occurred  within  eight  miles  of 
where  I  was  then  living,  and  which  will  serve  to  illustrate 
their  ftcllncj^  and  practice  throughout  the  South  and  West, 
moderated  in  their  outward  appearances  in  proportion  to  the 
refined  state  of  society,  and  the  strength  and  influence  of 
other  denominations.  At  a  Baptist  protracted  meeting  at 
Sinking  Creek  church,  in  Carter  county,  and  only  about  eight 
miles  west  of  Elizabethton,  the  Methodists  and  Presbyterians 
were  invited  to  attend,  from  the  village  of  Elizabethton, 
which  they  did,  and  aided  in  the  labors  of  the  meeting. 
Towards  the  close  of  the  meeting  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  was  administered,  and  the  pastor  of  the  church, 
Elder  Bayless,  after  detailing  the  reasons  why  they  could 
not  suffer  others  to  commune  with  them,  determined  to  con- 
vince them  that  they  were  not  wanting  either  in  Christian 
love  or  affectionate  regards  for  them.  Accordingly,  he  notified 
the  congregation  that  ^Uill  icho  icere  in  good  standing  in  their 
oion  Churches  might  occupy  the  front  seats,  and  see  the  Lord^s 
people  partake  of  his  shed  hlood  and  hroken  hodyV^  What 
amazing  condescension !  What  a  display  of  Christian  charity ! 
How  calmly  resplendent  must  have  been  the  glory  of  this 
scene — this  ebullition  of  a  haughty  dogmatism !  Ye  murky 
clouds    of    superstition    from    the    Scandinavian    forests,    do 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  183 

permit  yourselves  to  be  eclipsed  by  the  smoke  of  the  bigotry 
displayed  on  this  occasion!  Stand  fast,  ye  inhabitants  of 
earth  and  heaven,  and  see  the  light  of  Christian  charity,  in  its 
full-orbed  glory,  burst  at  once  upon  the  congregation  of  saints 
at  Sinking  Creek,  while  ^^all  who  are  in  good  standing"  in 
other  Churches  are  permitted  to  occupy  seats  near  to  the 
throne,  and  witness  the  glorious  sight!  Look  on,  ye  unpo- 
lished barbarians  of  the  Methodist  order,  and  ye  unbaptized 
heathens  of  the  Presbyterian  persuasion,  totally  ignorant  of 
the  fashionable  etiquette  of  Christian  courtesy,  and  learn 
what  relio;ion  is ! 

But,  to  be  serious,  those  who  were  ^'in  good  standing  in 
their  own  Churches"  had  no  right  to  complain  at  this  treat- 
ment, for  they  were,  at  that  time,  living  in  the  neglect  of  a 
known  duty.  And  they  must  have  known,  nay,  did  know, 
from  what  Elder  Bayless  taught  them,  that  they  could  no 
more  get  to  heaven  without  being  immersed  hy  a  Baptist 
preaclicr,  than  they  could  arrest  the  sun  in  his  course,  or 
check  the  impetuous  cataract  of  Niagara  in  its  onward  and 
terrible  progress ! 

Messrs.  Graves  and  Bayless  are  by  no  means  alone  in  their 
exclusive  views  upon  these  points.  In  an  editorial  headed 
^'Invalid  Baptism,''  in  the  Louisville  Baptist  "Banner  and 
Pioneer"  of  February  24,  1842,  a  paper  I  have  been  careful 
to  preserve — an  article  from  the  pen  of  Elder  Buck,  the  then 
resident  editor,  an  erudite  Gothamite  indeed,  only  excelled 
by  the  jackdaw  strut  of  his  co-laborer,  the  immortal  Howell — 
I  find  the  same  proscriptive  spirit  displayed.  I  give  the 
article  verbatim,  et  literatim,  et  punctuatim,  et  spellatim: 

"\Ye  regard  nothing  as  gospel  baptism  but  the  immersion  in  -water, 
of  a  believer,  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost. 

How  frequently  do  Baptist  ministers,  if  but  a  hand  or  a  part  of  the 
subject  be  uncovered  in  the  water,  immerse  again?  And  whoever 
thought  that  this  was  Aiiibaptism?  And  yet  we  risk  nothing  in  sayuag, 
that  it  is  as  decidedly  re-baptism,  as  it  would  be  to  re-immerse  an 


18  i       THE  ORE  AT  IROX  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

individual  who  had  been  immersed  by  a  Pedo-baptist  minister,  [a 
Methodist,  Presbyterian,  etc.,]  OR  ANY  OTHER  UNAUTHORIZED 

administrator: 

A  second  extract  from  tlie  same  article  is  in  these  words : 

Now  we  take  the  ground  that  no  baptism  is  valid,  whatever  be  its 
conformity  to  the  New  Testament  model  in  other  respects,  unless  ad- 
ministered  by  a   SCRIPTURALLY  AUTHORIZED  ADMINISTRATOR.       Again  : 

we  take  the  ground  that  no  body  or  community  of  men,  can  confer 
this  authority  or  right,  upon  an  individual,  to  administer  the  ordi- 
nances of  the  gospel,  but  the  church  of  .Jesus  Christ  alone,  [i.  e. 
the  Baptist  Church!]  Once  more:  we  take  the  ground,  that  the 
church  of  Jesus  Christ  is  a  body  of  baptized  believers,  {of  immersed 
Baptists!)  duly  organized  and  embodied  upon  the  principles  of  the 
gospel;  AND  THAT  NO  OTHER  IS  THE  CHURCH  OF  JESUS 
CHRIST!! 

I  want  the  reader  to  bear  in  mind  this  fact^  that  this  mam- 
moth sheet,  published  weekly,  is  the  organ  of  the  Baptist 
Church  in  the  South  and  West,  edited  at  that  date  by  Jive 
preacJiers  of  that  denomination,  the  ablest  they  could  muster. 

But  Elder  Howell  has  published  a  work  of  300  pages  upon 
this  and  other  subjects.  He  was  appointed  to  write  this 
work  by  the  Baptist  State  Convention  held  in  Nashville  in 
1840 ;  and,  true  to  the  trust  confided  in  him,  he  dedicated 
his  book  to  ^'  The  Baptist  Convention  of  the  State  of  Ten- 
nessee I'^  Here  is  a  specimen  of  the  insulting  pretensions  of 
this  Church,  as  laid  down  by  Mr.  Howell : 

These  facts  and  considerations  demonstrate  that  the  Baptist  is  the 
only  Church  which  can  claim  the  apostolic  origin,  and  that  in  its  organi- 
zation and  objects  it  is  conformed  in  all  respects  to  the  word  of  God; 
THAT  THE  APOSTOLIC  CHURCH  WAS  BAPTIST,  and  that  through 
several  channels'^  it  may  be  readily  and  surely  traced,  in  a  state  of  compa- 
rative purity,  down  to  our  own  times. — P.  286. 

Ours  is  the  only  denomination  who  place  this  ordinance  (baptism) 
in  its  true  position,  whei-e  it  was  left  by  Christ  and  his  apostles:  who 
refuse,  on  the  one  hand,  to  despoil  it  of  its  solemn  and  appropriate 
forms,  and  who  do  not,  on  the  other,  unduly  exalt  its  importance  and 
ef&cacy.— P.  204. 

*  One  of  these  "channels,"  and  a  most  important  one,  too,  is  that  of  Zel-e  Holli- 
man.  at  Providence,  immersing  \fi\\\ATa.e,  and  Williams  in  return  plunging  Holliman 
^^and  the  other  ten!"    That  was  a  "channel"  with  a  vengeance!     Ay,  and  that  Tv-as 

claiming  "apostolic  origin"  for  yon! 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  185 

We  cannot  commune  with  Pedobaptists,  because,  not  having  been 

IMMERSED,  THEY  ARE  NOT  BAPTIZED. P.   185. 

AVe    cannot   unite  ■with   Pedobaptists   in   sacramental   communion 

WITHOUT   AN    ACTUAL    ABANDONMENT    OR    PRACTICAL    FALSIFICATION    OF 

ALL  OUR  PRINCIPLES,  ON  BOTH  BAPTISM  AND  THE  LORD'S  SUP- 
PER.—P.  134. 

In  regard,  however,  to  the  object  especially  before  us,  I  shall  sus- 
tain the  proposition  that  baptism  (immersion)  has  ever  been  regarded 
as  an  essential  preparation  for  the  Lord's  Supper,  by  component  proof. 
—P.  65. 

And  as  IN  BAPTISM  we  profess  to  have  received  SPIRITUAL 
LIFE,  so,  in  communicating  at  the  Lord's  table,  we  have  the  emblems 
of  that  heavenly  food  by  which  Ave  grow,  and  in  virtue  of  which  we 
hope  to  live  for  ever.  And  as  we  are  born  of  God  but  once,  so  we  are 
baptized  but  once,  etc. — P.  59. 

Now,  Mr.  Graves  takes  occasion,  throughout  his  work,  to 
compare  Methodists,  who  sprinkle  and  pour  water  in  baptism, 
to  Roman  Catholics.  For  his  benefit,  I  propose  to  show  that 
himself,  Buck,  Howell,  and  all  who  endorse  their  views,  are 
not  unlike  the  Catholics,  by  any  means.  The  Catholic  Cate- 
chism, and  the  Canons  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  teach  pre- 
cisely this  language  : 

If  any  one  shall  say  that  baptism  is  not  essential  to  salvation, 
lei  him  be  accursed.  Sin,  whether  contracted  by  birth  from  our  first 
parents,  or  committed  ourselves,  is,  by  the  admirable  virtue  of  this 
sacrament,  remitted  and  pardoned! 

Yerily,  if  Catholics  go  to  any  greater  lengths  on  the 
subject  of  baptism  than  Graves,  Buck,  and  Howell  have 
gone,  I  have  not  the  capacity  to  make  the  discovery.  I 
have  given  the  doctrines  of  both  in  their  own  words,  referring 
to  chapter  and  verse.  The  hypothesis  of  these  close-commu- 
nion Baptists  nullifies  the  Abrahamic  covenant,  dispenses 
really  with  the  sacred  office  of  the  gospel  ministry,  and  the 
important  relations  of  Church  membership.  In  further  con- 
sideration of  these  points,  I  have  some  four  or  five  reflections 
to  ofi"er : 

1.  The  Close  Baptists  lay  such  a  stress  upon  baptism  by 
immersion,  as  to  make  it  the  sole  condition  of  admittance  to 


186       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

the  Lord's  tabic — a  table  whicb  they  say  can  only  be  spread 
by  ministers  wlio  have  been  immersed — no  others  being 
invested  with  ministerial  functions — none  others  being  even 
members  of  the  Church  of  Christ ! 

2.  The  Close  Baptists  hold  and  teach  that  there  is  no 
Church  militant  but  theirs,  and  that  there  is  no  ministry 
but  such  as  is  constituted  by  churches  of  their  ^^ faith  and 
order;"  but  they  will  call  on  Pedobaptists,  at  their  revivals, 
to  pray  for  their  seekers,  and  to  preach  the  word — thus 
making  them  their  ^^  mouth  in  addressing  the  Deity/'  as 
Mr.  Hall  expresses  it,  to  ask  God's  blessings  to  be  poured 
upon  them,  or  to  declare  His  will  concerning  them,  which  is 
vastly  more  important  and  sacred  than  to  prepare  and  offer 
the  bread  and  wine  ! 

3.  The  Close  Baptists  believe  and  teach  that  immersion  is 
the  only  door  into  the  Church;  but  they  will  not  receive  into 
their  communion  persons  who  have  been  regularly  immersed 
by  others,  unless  they  reimdiate  their  baptism,  and  the  minis- 
terial functions  of  all  other  ministers — therefore,  the  repudia- 
tion of  the  ministerial  functions  of  all  other  ministers  is  the 
door  into  the  Baptist  Church ! 

4.  The  Close  Baptists  are  influenced  by  a  spirit  which  is 
opposed  to  the  kingdom  of  Christ — a  spirit  which  would  set 
up  another  Icingdom  in  opposition,  and  nullify  the  covenant 
of  God,  and  at  the  same  time  wear  the  name  of  Christian ! 
God  has  never  had  but  one  spiritual  kingdom  in  the  world. 
This  kingdom  was  set  up  in  the  family  of  Abraham.  It  was 
with  God's  people  in  the  wilderness,  and  was  planted  with 
them  in  the  land  of  promise.  In  this  kingdom  Christ  was 
born.     Over  this  kingdom  Christ  reigns. 

5.  And,  finally,  the  Close  Baptists  have  set  up  a  kingdom 
in  opposition  to  Christ;  therefore,  the  Close  Baptists  are 
guilty  of  TREASON  AGAINST  GOD  ! 

In  the  outset  of  this  chapter  I  quoted  from  Mr.  Graves  the 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  187 

broad  assertion,  that  no  denomination  laid  down  terms  of 
communion  '^so  close,  or  so  unscripturally  close"  as  those  of 
the  Methodists,  with  the  additional  and  more  monstrous 
assertion,  that  'Hhe  Discipline  forbids  Methodist  preachers 
to  invite  members  of  other  denominations.''  Both  assertions 
are  false;  and  all  who  have  ever  witnessed  the  administration 
of  the  Lord's  Supper  among  Methodists,  know  that  the 
preachers  distinctly  say  :  '^This  is  not  the  tahle  of  the  Method- 
ists, hut  of  the  Lord,  and  we  invite  all  orthodox  Christians 
who  are  in  good  standing  in  their  oicn  Churches  to  commune 
with  us.'' 

As  to  the  closeness  of  the  terms,  these  are  laid  down  in  the 
Discipline,  and  invariably  stated  by  the  administrator  at  the 
table,  being  a  part  of  the  ceremony  required  on  the  occasion. 
They  ought  not  to  be  made  looser  by  any  denomination,  and 
such  as  do  not  come  up  to  this  standard  should  not  approach 
the  table.  They  are  found  under  the  head  of  ''Sacramental 
Services,"  etc.,  and  are  in  these  words  : 

Ye  that  do  truly  and  earnestly  repent  of  your  sins,  and  are  in  love 
and  charity  -with  your  neighbors,  and  intend  to  lead  a  new  life,  fol- 
lowing the  commandments  of  God,  and  walking  from  henceforth  in 
his  holy  ways,  draw  near  with  faith,  and  take  this  holy  sacrament  to 
your  comfort;  and  make  your  humble  confession  to  Almighty  God, 
meekly  kneeling  upon  your  knees. 


188  THE    GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 


CHAPTEE    IX. 

False  assertions  by  Elder  Graves — Nature  and  use  of  baptism — The 
Abrahamic  covenant  considered — Baptism  in  lieu  of  circiimcision — 
The  rights  of  infants  secured  in  both  cases — Scriptural  evidence  of 
the  soundness  of  these  positions — Baptism  the  door  into  the  Church 
— Baptists  enter  the  Church  backwards ! — Bunkers  practice  trine 
immersion,  but  go  it  face  foremost! — Methodists,  Presbyterians, 
Episcopalians,  and  others,  enter  the  Church  of  God  faces  foremost, 
conscious  of  rectitude  of  intention,  and  of  being  engaged  in  acts 
they  arc  not  ashamed  of! 

On  page  415,  Mr.  Graves  properly  commences  his  tirade 
upon  Baptism,  and  continues  it  through  four  entire  chapters 
of  his  work.  In  addition  to  his  misrepresenting  every  feature 
of  Methodism,  as  connected  with  the  ordinance  of  baptism, 
he  teaches  heresies  as  abominable,  throughout,  as  those  con- 
tended for  by  the  corrupt  Church  of  Rome.  He  takes  the 
ground  that  baptism  by  immersion  is  the  only  true  and  scrip- 
tural mode ;  and  that  a  Baptist  preacher  is  the  only  divinely 
authorized  expounder  of  God's  word,  and  the  only  legal 
administrator  of  the  ordinances  and  sacraments  of  his  Church ! 

These  broad  and  unqualified  assertions,  uttered  by  Mr. 
Graves  and  by  ultra  Baptists  almost  daily,  both  in  icoi-d  and 
deed,  arc  utterly  unauthorized  and  unfounded — do  utterly 
disfranchise  the  entire  ministry  of  several  large  and  respectable 
denominations,  indeed,  of  nearly  the  whole  Christian  world,  and 
annihilate  the  clerical  character  of  almost  every  evangelical 
minister  beloncring  to  those  denominations,  as  well  also  as  tho 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  189 

validity  of  every  ceremony  performed  by  them.  It  is  no  vin- 
dication to  say  that  the  Baptists  do  not  intend  to  go  thus  far 
— it  is  sufficient  for  the  public  to  know  that  they  do  go  thus 
far.  I  have  already  shown,  in  the  preceding  chapter,  that 
with  the  Baptists,  qualifications  for  admission — not  to  the 
Lord's  table,  but  to  the  table  of  the  Baptists,  with  bread  and 
wine  spread  thereon — are,  that  the  communicants  must  have 
been  haptized  hy  immersion,  and  that  baptism  must  have 
been  performed  by  a  Baptist  prcaclier,  who  was  himself  im- 
mersed by  a  man  of  the  same  '^  faith  and  order.'^  Because, 
with  the  Baptist  denomination,  a  man  is  made  a  minister  of 
the  gospel,  not  by  the  Holt/  Ghost,  but  by  immersion  !  Why 
do  I  say  this  ?  I  say  it  because  a  Baptist  is  not  a  minister  of 
Christ  until  he  is  immersed,  either  in  his  own  estimation  or  in 
the  estimation  of  his  Church. 

The  Pharisees,  and  others,  did  not  oppose  the  truths  uttered 
by  our  Lord  and  his  disciples  with  more  vehemence,  than  do 
the  Baptists  oppose  all  other  modes  of  baptism  save  the  one 
practiced  by  themselves.  The  Sadducees  did  not  advocate 
the  doctrine  that  there  is  neither  angel  nor  spirit  with  more 
zeal,  than  do  the  Baptists  that  their  forms  and  ceremonies  are 
right,  and  that  those  of  all  other  sects  are  wrong. 

I  intend  this  chapter  shall  be  devoted  to  the  nature  and  use 
of  baptism,  and  other  points  connected  therewith;  but  as 
my  custom  is,  before  entering  upon  the  argument,  I  will 
submit  a  few  of  Mr.  Graves's  assertions  and  positions,  which 
shall  serve  for  me  as  a  text.  He  heads  his  thirty-fourth 
chapter,  commencing  on  page  415,  with  these  words — 
clearly  indicating  the  course  of  the  argument  throughout 
this  chapter : 

Methodists  have  two  distinct  "baptisms,"  one  for  infants  and  one  for 
adults — A  distinct  and  different  of&ce  for  each — A  distinct  and  alto- 
gether different  design  for  each — The  regeneration  of  infants  in 
baptism  in  all  cases,  plainly  taught  in  the  Discipline  and  standard 
■works  of  the  Book  Concern 


190  THE    r.RKAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED. 

He  conducts  the  argument,  on  pnge  419,  after  this  truly 
convincing  style  : 

Does  not  the  infant  of  a  day  differ  as  much  from  an  adult  of  twenty- 
two  or  fifty,  as  non-intelligence  from  intelligence — as  irrationality  from 
rationality'?  and,  so  far  as  being  the  subject  of  gospel  address  and 
gospel  motives,  as  a  bell  differs  from  a  believer?  Then  certainly  the 
command  to  baptize  a  believer  in  Christ — and  we  have  a  command  to 
baptize  no  other  character — can  no  more  be  construed  by  Methodists 
into  the  liberty  to  baptize  unconscious  infants  and  non-believing  chil- 
dren of  a  dozen  years,  than  it  can  by  the  Papists  into  a  permission  to 
baptize  bells,  asses,  and  locomotives — which  they  do. 

His  next,  and  by  far  most  unanswerable  argument,  conti- 
nued on  the  same  page,  is  this  : 

1.  Are  not  vs'ords  put  into  the  mouth  of  the  Saviour  that  he  never 
used,  in  order  to  teach  the  doctrine  that  no  infant  or  unbaptized  person 
can  be  saved  ? !  "Born  anew  of  water  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  Christ 
never  said;  but,  "Except  one  be  born  of  water  and  wind  he  cannot 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  he  did  say.  This  is  what  he  said 
— these  were  the  identical  words  he  used. 

I  pause  only  to  remark,  that  this  substitution  of  wind  for 
Spirit,  I  take  to  be  according  to  the  new  version  Graves  and 
others  are  so  zealous  to  have  adopted !  That  such  men  should 
be  anxious  to  substitute  wind  for  the  Holy  Ghost,  is  quite 
natural.  Indeed,  I  have  no  doubt  Graves  himself  was  "born 
of  loatcr  and  wind"  exclusively!  Of  course  this  change  of 
wind  for  Spirit  is  intended  to  run  through  the  whole  transla- 
tion; and  in  many  respects  such  changes  arc  peculiarly 
adapted  to  Baptists  of  Mr.  Graves's  character  and  sentiments. 
But  let  us  see  how  it  will  work. 

"  The  wind  itself  bearcth  witness  with  our  icind,  that  we 
are  the  children  of  God.''  Again:  "God  is  wind,"  ay, 
and  such  as  '^worship  him  must  worship  him  in  tvind  and  in 
truth."  And  again,  in  2  Corinthians  iii.  17:  *'Now  the 
Lord  is  that  wind;  and  where  the  wind  of  the  Lord  is, 
there  is  liberty." 

This  last  verse,  thus  translated  and  changed,  is  peculiarly 


THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED.  191 

adapted  to  most  of  the  Baptist  preacliers  in  this  country,  who 
oppose  the  use  of  any  and  all  books  except  the  Bible — pub- 
licly boast  that  they  have  no  ^^ edecation'^  or  ^^  human  larnin" 
— claim  to  be  inspired — and  only  announce  to  an  audience 
such  texts  of  Scripture  as  God  reveals  to  them  for  special 
purposes  and  occasions,  either  after  their  arrival  at  the  place 
of  worship,  or  on  their  way  thither !  These  men  usually  pro- 
fess to  open  their  mouths,  and  to  speak  as  the  Lord  Jilh  them, 
or,  to  use  their  precise  language,  as  He  '^  shall  give  light  and 
liberty,"  Truly  the  Lord  fills  them  with  air,  which,  when 
put  in  motion  by  the  stentorian  lungs  of  a  Baptist  preacher, 
is  ^'ivind ;"  and  then,  if  a  congregation  will  take  words  for 
ideas,  and  sound  for  sense,  they  will  have  '^another  gospel  ]" 
as  ^Hhe  icind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  thou  hearest  the 
sound  thereof,  but  canst  not  tell  whence  it  cometh,  and  whither 
it  goeth  :  so  is  every  one  that  is  born  of  the  wind  !" 

"Blow  rock  and  mountain  rampart  round, 
Till  glory  echoes  back  the  sound  !" 

His  thirty-fifth  chapter,  commencing  on  page  428,  has  this 
heading,  indicating  the  points  both  discussed  and  misrepre- 
sented : 

Adult  baptism  distinct  from  infant — Its  design,  with  the  exception — 
No  faith  required  of  the  adult,  save  that  required  by  the  Romish 
Church — And  no  profession  of  regeneration  as  a  condition  of  bap- 
tism— Regeneration  ordinarily  the  same  with  baptism. 

And  this  chapter  he  concludes  in  these  words  : 

In  consideration  of  these  teachings,  can  Baptists,  with  any  kind  of 
reason,  be  called  upon  to  recognize  the  Methodist  Episcopal  society 
as  a  Christian  or  gospel  Church  ?  Is  it  a  congregation  of  believers, 
according  to  the  definition  of  the  Discipline,  in  which  the  word  of  God 
Is  faithfully  preached,  and  the  ordinances  duly  administered  ? 

The  pastor  of  the  Baptist  church  in  Nashville  has  been 
employed  in  publishing  an  essay  on  '^the  Church,"  the  posi- 
tions of  which  are  thus  summed  up  by  Elder  Graves,  in  an 


192  THK    (JIIKAT    IIION    WHEf:L    EXAMINKIJ. 

editorial  notice  in  tlic  "Tennessee  Baptist,"  which  I  find  in 
that  paper  for  December  22,  1855. 

Ho  takes  the  true  position  tliat  Tcdobaptist  societies  are  not  goxpel 
Churches  in  any  true  sense,  and  that  Pedobaptist  preachers  are  not 
members  of  ijospel  Churches,  and  consequently  not  baptized  or  ordained, 
and  therefore  not  ministers  of  Christian  Churches.  AVhy  then  should 
Baptists  recognize  them  as  such  by  associating  with  them  as  such — 
recognizing  them  as  oificial  ministers  by  inviting  them  into  our  pulpits, 
or  to  seats  in  our  deliberative  bodies?  We  do  not  believe  that  Baptist 
churches  generally  will  always  act  inconsistently. 

This  is  not  all  Mr.  Graves  has  said  recently  in  his  paper, 
bearing  upon  this  subject.  He  has  boasted  that  these  senti- 
ments, of  which  his  paper  is  the  strenuous  advocate,  are 
rapidly  gaining  ground  among  the  Baptists  of  the  South-west, 
which  I  have  no  doubt  is  the  fact,  seeing  their  endorsement 
by  the  "  North  Carolina  Baptist  Publishing  Society."  Re- 
volting as  such  conclusions  must  be  to  liberal  minds  and  truly 
pious  hearts,  I  do  not  see  how  those  who  hold  that  haptism  is 
the  door  into  the  Churchy  and  that  nothing  but  immersion  is 
baptism,  can  hold  back  from  the  same  conclusions.  They  are 
the  plain,  logical,  and  unavoidable  sequences  of  such  premises, 
if  I  have  not  forgotten  what  logic  is.  The  only  way  for  pious 
and  charitable  Baptists — of  whom  there  are  many — to  avoid 
such  conclusions,  is  to  retrace  their  steps ^  and  give  up  their 
favorite  dogma,  that  immersion  alone  is  haptism,  which  is  the 
logical  thunderbolt,  in  their  chain  of  reasoning,  which  drives 
them  to  this  revolting  conclusion  ! 

Now,  what  is  baptism  ?  It  is  a  sacrament  which  has  occa- 
sioned endless  controversies  during  the  last  two  or  three  hun- 
dred years,  the  obligation  of  which,  it  is  affirmed,  rests  upon 
the  example  of  our  Lord,  who — not  in  person,  but  by  his 
disciples — baptized  such  as,  by  his  discourses  and  miracles, 
were  brought  to  a  knowledge  of  the  truth.  Does  the  obliga- 
tion of  baptism  rest  upon  any  thing  else?  It  further  rests 
upon  the  solemn  command  of  Christ  to  his  apostles,  after  his 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  193 

resurrection — ^^Go  and  teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them  in 
the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy- 
Ghost ;"  (not  of  the  ^^wind,^'  as  Graves  would  have  it !)  and 
upon  the  practice  of  the  apostles,  who  went  forth  and  did  as 
they  were  commanded. 

But  is  any  thing  further  to  be  understood  by  baptism  ?  I 
answer,  it  is  a  rite  or  ceremony  by  which  individuals  are 
initiated  into  the  profession  of  the  Christian  religion ;  or,  if 
the  reader  please,  it  is  the  appointed  mode  by  which  an 
individual  assumes  the  profession  of  Christianity;  or,  to 
be  still  more  explicit,  it  is  the  door  by  which  persons 
ENTER  the  Church  op  God  on  earth,  and  are  admitted  to 
a  participation  of  the  privileges  belonging  to  the  followers  of 
Christ.  In  other  words,  it  is  by  the  ordinance  of  baptism  that 
those  who  believe  the  gospel,  or  profess  faith  in  Christ,  are  to 
be  separated  from  the  wicked,  and  joined  to  the  visible 
Church ;  and  the  application  of  water,  or  the  rite  accompany- 
ing it,  is,  as  it  ever  has  been,  intended  to  represent  the  wash- 
ing away,  or  openly  renouncing,  the  impurities  of  our  natural 
state — our  numerous  and  grievous  offences;  and,  consequently, 
it  must  be  understood  that  at  least  a  profession  of  repentance 
must  always  accompany  a  profession  of  faith  in  Christ  Jesus. 
However,  as  I  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  of  baptism  as  the 
door  into  the  Church,  it  is  proper  here  that  I  qualify  this 
expression.  Baptism  is  properly  a  sacrament  of  the  gospel — 
was  instituted  by  Christ  himself  as  the  initiating  rite  into  the 
Church ;  and  in  this  sense  I  claim  to  be  understood  when  I 
speak  of  it  as  the  door.  In  a  strict  sense,  Christ  is  himself 
the  door  into  his  Church;  but  water  baptism  entitles  the 
person  to  the  privileges  of  the  Church  on  earth,  while  the 
baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost  is  that  which  qualifies  the  indi- 
vidual for  the  Church  triumphant.  Water  baptism  alone  does 
not  qualify  a  person  for  admission  into  Christ's  holy  Church; 
but  baptism  by  "  water  and  the  Holy  Ghost' ^  will  qualify  one 
9 


194  THE    r.REAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

for  the  Church  on  eartli  and  in  heaven.  And  while  the 
former  is  not  essential  to  salvation  itself,  of  itself,  the  latter 
is;  and  the  two  united  must  not  be  neglected.  For  the  Word 
says,  "Except  a  man  be  born  of  water  and  of  the  Spirit,  he 
cannot  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God." 

This  is  the  view  that  Methodists  take  of  this  subject,  and 
it  is  a  view  in  which  almost  every  evangelical  denomination 
concurs.  The  Baptists,  like  the  Koman  Catholics,  carry  their 
opinions  far  beyond  this  view  of  the  subject.  The  Romanists, 
in  their  opinions  as  to  the  efficacy  of  this  sacrament,  consider 
baptism,  administered  by  a  priest,  as  of  itself  applying  the 
merits  of  Christ  to  the  individual  baptized.  The  Baptists  and 
Romanists  differ  as  to  the  mode  and  suhjects  of  baptism,  but 
hot  as  it  regards  the  efficacy  of  the  sacrament  of  baptism. 
According  to  the  Romanists,  baptism  is  absolutely  necessary 
to  salvation ;  and  they  therefore  admit  its  validity  when 
administered  to  a  dying  cliild  by  any  person  present,  should 
there  be  no  priest  at  hand !  In  this  they  are  much  more 
liberal  than  our  Baptist  brethren.  The  Baptists  hold  that 
baptism  by  immersion  is  absolutely  necessary  to  salvation,  but 
deny  its  validity  when  administered  by  any  one  but  a  Baptist 
preacher  J  who  has  himself  been  immersed  by  some  one  who 
was  immersed  before  Mm,  and  believed  in  that  as  the  only 
true  and  scriptural  mode  of  baptism.  They  also  deny  that 
children  have  any  right  to  the  ordinance. 

But  I  have  something  more  to  say  respecting  the  nature 
and  use  of  baptism.  That  baptism  is  a  sacrament  of  the 
gospel,  that  it  is  an  ordinance  of  great  importance,  and  that 
it  was  designed  by  Christ  to  be  perpetuated  in  his  Church,  are 
propositions  which  may  be  sustained  by  such  evidence  as  will 
satisfy  every  honest  inquirer  after  truth,  and  which  nothing 
but  an  unreasonable  prejudice,  spiced  with  something  of  the 
stubbornness  of  the  mide,  will  induce  any  man  to  reject. 

I  shall  not  stop  to  inquire  in  this  chapter  what  is  the  philo- 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  195 

logical  sense  of  the  term  haptizo,  but  what  is  the  theological 
import  of  the  sacrament  of  Christian  baptism.  In  my  ar- 
rangement of  the  examination  of  this  subject,  this  does  not 
belong  to  this  chapter,  though  it  is  necessary  to  be  considered 
in  order  to  a  proper  development  of  the  whole  subject,  and 
will  be  brought  forward  in  the  course  of  my  argument  on  the 
mode  of  baptism. 

First,  then,  in  a  general  sense.  Christian  baptism  confers 
the  mark  upon  the  person  baptized  of  religious  distinction. 
All  baptized  persons  are,  by  that  mark  of  distinction,  sepa- 
rated from  the  common  masses  of  irreligious  persons — from  the 
numerous  citizens  of  a  wicked  world,  sometimes  known  as 
^^the  Big  Survey.'^  It  is  the  external  and  visible  badge  of 
Christianity.  Baptism  is  a  pledge  of  Divine  grace  which 
Christ  has  given  to  us,  to  assure  us  that  all  the  benefits  of 
salvation  shall  be  secured  to  us  on  the  conditions  of  the  gos- 
pel. A  mark  of  discrimination,  then,  is  hereby  applied  to 
the  Christian,  and  he  is  known  as  being  devoted  to  Christ, 
just  as  a  Jew  by  circumcision  was  distinguished  from  a  Gen- 
tile, and  was  known  to  be  devoted  to  the  law  of  Moses. 
Baptism  is,  therefore,  a  seal  which  Christ  puts  upon  us  as  his 
own  pledge  of  our  salvation,  on  the  condition  of  our  fulfilling 
our  covenant  obligations  to  him.  See  Mark  xvi.  16,  where 
the  promise  of  salvation  is  secured  to  baptized  believers  : 
^'  He  that  believeth  and  is  baptized  shall  be  saved."  Also, 
Acts  ii.  88  :  ^^  Then  Peter  said  unto  them,  Repent  and  be 
baptized,  every  one  of  you,  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  for 
the  remission  of  sins,  and  ye  shall  receive  the  gift  of  the  Holy 
Ghost."  This  is  further  evident  from  1  Peter  iii.  21.  The 
apostle  in  this  passage,  after  noticing  the  preservation  of 
Noah  and  his  family  in  the  ark,  observes  :  ''  The  like  figure 
whereunto  even  baptism  doth  also  now  save  us."  But  then 
he  says  that  it  is  ^^not  the  putting  away  of  the  filth  of 
the  flesh,"  that  is,  not  merely  the  outward  ceremony/  of  bap- 


196  THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

tism,  "  but  the  answer  of  a  good  conscience  toward  God" — 
the  fulfilling  of  the  covenant  obligations  which  we  take  upon 
ourselves  by  baptism. 

Touching  upon  the  mark  of  discrimination  made  known  by 
the  rite  of  baptism,  some  Baptist  writers,  holding  to  immer- 
sion as  the  only  mode — as  does  Elder  Graves  throughout  his 
entire  book — have  indulged  in  an  amusing  degree  of  fancy. 
In  Kobinson's  History  of  Baptism,  page  17,  it  is  said  : — 

Baptize  is  a  dyer's  word,  and  signifies  to  dip  so  as  to  color.  The 
word,  then,  conveys  two  ideas — the  one  literal,  dipping,  the  other  fig- 
urative, coloring :  a  figure,  however,  expressive  of  a  real  fact — mean- 
ing that  John,  by  bathing  persons  in  the  river  Jordan,  conferred  a 
character,  a  moral  hue,  as  dyers,  by  dipping  into  a  dyeing-vat,  set  a 
tinct  or  color. 

I  think  it  likely  that  Elder  Graves  subscribes  to  this  view 
of  the  subject,  from  various  passages  in  his  book  !  I  do  not 
believe  one  word  of  it,  and  for  this  reason — the  theory  is  not 
founded  in  evidence.  If  baptism,  by  any  mode,  confer  a 
moral  hue,  it  is  essential  to  salvation,  because  it  is  a  regene- 
rating rite.  This  kind  of  spiritual  baptism  the  Mormons 
believe  in,  who  also  immerse^  and  at  the  time  of  immersing 
they  profess  to  baptize  with  the  Holy  Ghost.  This  is  a  re- 
vival of  the  exploded  theory  of  old  Simon  Magus!  That  the 
Baptist  ministry  claim  to  have  had  such  a  prerogative  dele- 
gated to  them,  I  will  not  now  undertake  to  say ;  but,  from 
the  importance  they  attach  to  immersion  at  their  oicn  hands, 
as  well  as  from  the  strange  feelings  of  many  subjects  at  the 
time  of  their  immersion,  as  expressed  by  them  afterwards,  I 
am  certainly  authorized  to  infer  such  a  thing. 

But  in  considering  the  nature  and  use  of  Christian  bap- 
tism, we  are  not  only  to  regard  it  as  one  of  the  sacraments 
of  the  Church,  and  as  a  sign  of  spiritual  blessings,  but  we 
are  likewise  to  regard  it  as  the  seal  of  the  new  covenant.  It 
is  God's  mark,  if  the  reader  please,  or  signature,  affixed  to 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  197 

the  volume  of  inspiration,  containing  rules  for  human  con- 
duct, promises  of  eternal  life  to  the  faithful,  and  declarations 
concerning  the  future  happiness  and  misery  of  men. 

Just  here,  I  will  insert  several  pages  of  a  small  work  I 
published  in  1842,  which  I  compiled  from  the  most  approved 
authorities  of  the  age  in  which  I  wrote  : — 

In  regard  to  the  use  of  seals  in  general,  it  -will  not  be  irrelevant  to 
premise  that  it  is  a  custom  of  immemorial  usage,  resorted  to  as  a 
convenient  mode  of  attesting  the  genuineness  or  authenticity  of  the 
sealed.  Anciently,  and  -when  the  art  of  writing  was  unknown,  the 
practice  of  sealing  contracts  was  extensively  adopted.  Every  man  had 
his  own  seal,  or  mark,  which  he  affixed  to  an  instrument  instead  of 
signing  his  own  proper  name,  which  lie  could  not  do.  The  practice 
originated  in  necessity,  at  a  time  when  men  could  not  wi'ite  ;  but  hav- 
ing once  obtained  as  a  general  custom,  it  continued  long  after  the 
necessity  which  gave  it  birth  had  ceased  to  exist.  The  Bible  abounds 
v/ith  allusions  to  this  custom  of  sealing  contracts,  covenants,  agree- 
ments, etc.,  which  need  not  here  be  noticed. 

Suffice  it  to  say,  that  God  has  always  affixed  his  seal,  or  marTr,  or 
signature — whatever  we  may  please  to  call  it — to  his  several  dispensa- 
tions ;  and  in  doing  this,  he  has  accommodated  the  simplicity  of  the 
sign  to  the  circumstances  of  man.  Of  this  nature  was  the  tree  of  life 
in  the  garden  of  Eden.  It  was  to  Adam  a  token  or  pledge  of  the  life 
which  was  promised  him  in  case  of  obedience.  Besides,  when  God 
covenanted  with  Noah,  after  the  catastrophe  of  the  flood,  promising 
"not  to  smite  any  more  evei'y  living  thing,"  he  "set  his  bow  in  the 
cloud;"  and  "God  said,  this  is  the  token  of  the  covenant  which  I 
make  between  me  and  you  and  every  living  creature.  And  it  shall 
come  to  pass,  that  when  I  bring  a  cloud  over  the  earth,  that  the  bow 
shall  be  seen  in  the  cloud ;  and  I  will  kemember  my  covenant  which 
is  between  me  and  you  and  every  living  creature  of  all  flesh,"  etc. — 
See  Genesis  ix.  2,  etc. 

We  then  remark  that  the  toTcen  or  sign  thus  exhibited  was  to  be  as 
a  remembrance  of  the  obligation,  o.nd  a  perpetual  pledge  of  the  fidelity 
of  the  Almighty  in  the  performance  of  the  covenant  with  Noah. 

Well,  now,  circumcision  was  the  seal  of  the  Abrahamic  covenant 
under  the  Mosaic  law.  When  it  was  instituted,  Abraham  was  in- 
formed that  it  should  "be  a  token  of  the  covenant"  between  God  and 
him. — Genesis  xvii.  2,  In  further  proof  of  this,  Paul,  in  the  Epistle 
to  the  Romans,  iv.  2,  says,  "And  he  [Abraham]  received  the  sign  of 
circumcision,  a  seal  of  the  righteousness  of  faith  which  he  had,"  etc. 
Circumcision,  therefore,  among  the  lineal  descendants  of  Abraham, 
was  the  visible  mark  which  God  annexed  to  his  covenant — ay,  it  was 
the  impress  of  God's  seal,  wherebj'^  he  attested  the  validity  and  bind- 
ing nature  of  the  covenant,  and  offered  assurance  to  the  Jews  of  his 
own  faithfulness ;  just  as  a  man  would  bind  himself  in  a  contract  by 


198  THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

affixing  liis  signature  to  an  article  of  agreement.  In  like  manner, 
the  Jews  assumed  the  obligations  that  circumcision  devolved  on  them, 
by  voluntarily  becoming  a  party  in  the  covenant. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  multiply  quotations  from  the  Scriptures  to 
prove  the  position  we  have  assumed ;  namely,  that  circumcision  was 
the  sign  and  seal  of  the  covenant  made  with  Abraham,  or  that  the 
covenant  between  Jehovah  and  Abraham,  thus  sealed  and  attested, 
was  the  evangelical  covenant.  But  we  will  give  one  or  two  other  pas- 
sages, in  order  to  establish,  bej'ond  the  possibility  of  cavil,  one  other 
important  point.  It  is  this  :  that  God  instituted  a  visible  Church  in 
the  family'  of  Abraham,  and  that  this  Church  was  composed  of  adults 
and  i?ifan(s,  though  denied  by  all  regular  Baptists,  because  its  denial 
is  necessary  to  the  support  of  their  owu  theory.  This  Church  was 
founded  on  the  evangelical  covenant,  and  was  the  same  as  the  Church 
■which  now  exists  under  the  gospel  dispensation.  In  proof  of  these 
propositions,  we  direct  the  reader's  attention  to  the  passages  hereto- 
fore quoted,  and  to  the  following  from  Genesis  xvii.  19,  20:  "And 
God  said,  Sarah  shall  bear  thee  a  son  indeed,  and  thou  shalt  call  his 
name  Isaac ;  and  I  will  establish  my  covenant  with  him  for  an  ever- 
lastiyig  covenant,  and  with  his  seed  after  him.  And  as  for  Ishmael,  I 
have  heard  thee;  but  my  covenant  will  I  establish  with  Isaac." 

From  these  passages  we  learn  that  God  took  Abraham  and  his  fa- 
mily, including  both  adults  and  infants,  into  a  visible  covenant-relation 
to  himself,  by  circumcision ;  and  that  this  covenant  was  confirmed 
unto  Isaac  and  his  descendants.  This  covenant  is  so  repeatedly  de- 
clared to  be  ail  everlasting  covenant,  that  we  have  reason  to  think,  from 
the  very  face  of  the  texts  themselves,  without  looking  for  further  evi- 
dence, that  it  was  designed  to  be  of  endless  duration.  The  terms  of 
this  covenant  do  also  show  that  it  was  designed  to  extend  to  other  na- 
tions beside  those  who  should  be  the  natural  descendants  of  Abraham. 
And  this  view  of  the  subject  is  fully  confirmed  by  collating  these  pas- 
sages with  those  in  the  book  of  Genesis,  in  which  God  declares  to 
Abraham  that  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  shall  be  blessed  in  him  or 
in  his  seed.  Now  the  covenant  thus  explained  directs  us  necessarily 
to  Christ  as  that  seed  of  Abraham  in  whom  all  the  families  of  the 
earth  were  to  be  blessed ;  and  confiinns  the  foregoing  propositions — 
namely,  that  God  instituted  a  visible  Church  in  the  family  of  Abra- 
ham which  was  composed  of  adults  and  infants,  and  that  this  Church 
was  founded  on  the  evangelical  covenant,  and  the  same  as  the  Church 
now  existing  under  the  gospel  dispensation.  These  propositions  are 
clearly  established  by  the  scriptures  we  have  quoted,  and  by  nume- 
rous others,  and  cannot  be  overthrown  by  any  antipedobaptist  in  the 
country. 

We  now  proceed  to  the  consideration  of  a  most  important  point — a 
point  upon  which  "hang  all  the  law  and  the  prophets."  We  proceed 
to  show  baptism  stands  in  the  place  of  circumcision,  and  seals  the  same 
blessings  now  that  once  were  sealed  with  blood.  If  we  can  sustain 
this  proposition,  by  Scripture  and  argument,  we  have  gained  all  we 
desire,  so  far  as  the  nature  and  use  of  baptism  is  concerned,  and  shall 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  199 

have  left  our  Baptist  friends  the  bag  to  hold,  with  both  ends  open. 
This  proposition  will  appear  from  the  following  considerations : 

1st.  Circumcision  designates  a  member  of  the  visible  Church,  for 
this  was  to  Abraham  and  his  descendants  the  seal  of  the  righteousness 
of  faith,  and  none  could  enjoy  the  privileges  of  the  Church  among  the 
Jews  without  being  circumcised.  In  proof  we  offer  the  following 
scriptures : — 

And  the  Scripture,  foreseeing  that  God  would  justify  the  heathen  through  fttith, 
preached  before  the  gospel  uuto  Abraham,  saying,  In  thee  shall  all  nations  be 
blessed. — Galatians  iii.  8. 

And  he  received  the  sign  of  circumcision,  a  seal  of  the  righteousness  of  the  faith 
which  he  had  yet  being  uncircuracised :  that  he  might  be  the  father  of  all  them 
that  believe,  though  they  be  not  circumcised:  that  righteousness  might  be  imputed 
to  them  also. — Romans  iv.  11. 

And  when  Abram  was  ninety  years  old  and  nine,  the  Lord  appeared  to  Abram, 
and  said  unto  him,  I  am  the  Almighty  God:  walk  before  me,  and  be  thou  perfect. 

And  the  uncircumcised  man-child  whoso  flesh  of  his  foreskin  is  not  circumcised, 
that  Boul  shall  be  cut  off  from  his  people :  he  hath  broken  my  covenant. — Genesis 
xvii.  1, 14. 

And  when  a  stranger  shall  sojourn  with  thee,  and  will  keep  the  passover  to  the 
Lord,  let  all  his  males  be  circumcised,  and  then  let  him  come  near  and  keep  it ;  and 
he  shall  be  as  one  that  is  born  in  the  land;  for  no  uncircumcised  person  shall 
eat  thereof. — Exodus  xii.  48. 

And  if  a  stranger  shall  sojourn  among  you,  and  will  keep  the  passover  unto  the 
Lord;  according  to  the  ordinance  of  the  passover,  and  according  to  the  manner 
thereof,  so  shall  he  do :  ye  shall  have  one  ordinance,  both  for  the  stranger,  and 
for  him  that  was  born  in  the  land. — Numbers  ix.  14. 

Baptism  now  recognizes  a  member  of  the  visible  Church  of  Christ, 
and  none  are  entitled  to  its  privileges  under  the  Christian  dispensa- 
tion without  being  baptized.  In  proof  of  this  we  offer  the  following 
scriptures : — 

Go  ye  therefore  and  teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father, 
and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost. — Matthew  xxviii.  19. 

And  he  said  unto  them.  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature. 

He  that  believeth  and  is  baptized,  shall  be  saved;  but  he  that  believeth  not, 
shall  be  damned. — Mark  xvi.  15,  16. 

Then  Peter  said  unto  them.  Repent,  and  be  baptized  every  one  of  you  in  tho 
name  of  Jesus  Christ,  for  the  remission  of  sins;  and  ye  shall  receive  the  gift  of  the 
Holy  Ghost : 

For  the  promise  is  unto  you,  and  to  your  children,  and  to  all  that  are  afar  off, 
even  aa  many  as  the  Lord  our  God  shall  call. — Acts  ii.  38,  39. 

2d.  Circumcision  was  the  visible  seal  of  the  covenant  of  grace,  and 
of  the  righteousness  of  faith.  For  the  proof  of  this,  see  the  forego- 
ing passages  from  Genesis,  Romans,  and  Galatians. 

Baptism  is  now  the  outward  seal  of  the  covenant  of  grace  and  of 
the  righteousness  of  faith.  In  proof  of  this,  we  give,  beside  the 
passages  already  quoted,  the  following : — 

Jesus  answered,  Yerily,  verily,  I  say  unto  thee.  Except  a  man  be  born  of  water 
and  of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God. — Jonx  iii.  5. 

And  Philip  said.  If  thou  believest  with  all  thine  heart,  thou  mayest.  And  he  an- 
swered and  said,  I  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God. 

And  he  commanded  the  chariot  to  stand  still ;  and  they  went  down  both  into  the 
water,  both  Philip  and  the  eunuch ;  and  he  baptized  him. — Acts  viii.  37,  88. 


200  THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

3d.  Circumcision  was  a  sign  of  the  grace  of  regeneration,  or  the 
renewing  of  the  soul  in  righteousness.  In  proof  of  this  position,  we 
give  the  following  scriptures : — 

But  ho  is  a  Jew,  which  is  one  inwardly ;  and  circumcision  is  that  of  the  heart, 
in  the  spirit,  and  not  in  the  letter;  whose  praise  is  not  of  men,  but  of  God. — KoM. 
ii.  29. 

For  we  are  the  circumcision,  which  worship  .God  in  the  spirit,  and  rejoice  in 
Christ  Jesus,  and  have  no  confidence  in  the  flesh. — Philippiaxs  iii.  3. 

In  whom  also  ye  are  circumcised  with  the  circumcision  made  without  hands,  in 
putting  ofiF  the  body  of  the  sins  of  the  flesh  by  the  circumcision  of  Christ. — Colos- 
8IANS  ii.  11. 

Baptism  by  water  is  now  a  sign  of  the  grace  of  regeneration,  or  the 
renewing  of  the  soul  in  righteousness.  The  evidence  of  this  we  find 
in  the  following  passages : — 

And  now,  why  tarriest  thoii?  arise,  and  be  baptized,  and  wash  away  thy  sins,  call- 
ing on  the  name  of  the  Lord. — Acts  xxii.  16. 

Not  by  works  of  righteousness  which  we  have  done,  but  according  to  his  mercy 
he  saved  us,  by  the  washing  of  regeneration,  and  renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost. — 
Titus  iii.  5. 

Husbands,  love  your  wives,  even  as  Christ  also  loved  the  Church,  and  gave  him- 
self for  it ; 

That  he  might  sanctify  and  cleanse  it  with  the  washing  of  water  by  the  word. — 
Ephesians  v.  25,  26. 

Let  us  draw  near  with  a  true  heart,  in  full  assurance  of  faith,  having  our  hearts 
sprinkled  from  an  evil  conscience,  and  our  bodies  washed  with  pure  water. — 
Hebrews  x.  22. 

4th.  CiTcumcision  was  an  ordinance  that  constantly  attended  the 
gospel  under  the  former  dispensation.  See  the  following  scriptures 
in  proof  of  this,  as  well  as  others  already  quoted : — 

And  when  eight  days  were  accomplished  for  the  circumcising  of  the  child,  his 
name  was  called  JESUS,  which  was  so  named  of  the  angel  before  he  was  conceived 
in  the  womb. 

And  when  the  days  of  her  purification  according  to  the  law  of  Moses  were  ac- 
complished, they  brought  him  to  Jerusalem,  to  present  him  to  the  Lord: 

(As  it  is  written  in  the  law  of  the  Lord,  Every  male  that  openeth  the  womb  shall 
be  called  holy  to  the  Lord;) 

And  to  offer  a  sacrifice  according  to  that  which  is  said  in  the  law  of  the  Lord, 
A  pair  of  turtledoves,  or  two  young  pigeons. — Luke  ii.  21-24. 

Moses  therefore  gave  unto  you  circumcision ;  not  because  it  is  of  Moses,  but  of 
the  fathers ;  and  ye  on  the  Sabbath  day  circumcise  a  man. — John  vii.  22. 

Baptism  by  water  is  an  ordinance  that  constantly  attends  the  gos- 
pel under  the  present  dispensation.  In  proof  of  this,  we  might  ad- 
duce many  passages,  but  will  only  quote  the  following : — 

Go  ye  therefore  and  teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father, 
and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost; 

Teaching  them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you;  and,  lo, 
T  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world.  Amen. — Matthew  xxviii. 
19,  20. 

From  the  foregoing  facts,  circumstances,  and  considerations,  the 
conclusion  is  inevitable  that  baptism  is  to  the  Church  now  what  cir- 
cumcision was  under  the  former  dispensation ;  namely,  the  outward 
seal  of  the  covenant,  and  of  the  righteousness  of  faith.     In  other 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  201 

words,  of  whatever  nature  was  circumcision  under  the  Old  Testament 
dispensation,  of  this  same  nature  is  baptism  under  the  New  Testament 
dispensation.  As  the  former  was  the  seal  which  God  graciously  en- 
tered into  with  man,  so  also  is  the  latter.  And  the  gospel  is  nothing 
more  than  the  complete  development  of  the  Abrahamic  covenant. 
This  covenant  stretches  through  all  time,  and  comprehends  all  nations, 
sexes,  colors,  and  sizes  of  human  beings  in  its  liberal  provisions.  It 
was  in  days  of  yore  a  covenant  of  grace  and  mercy,  of  pardon  and 
eternal  life,  conditionally,  to  universal  man.  It  is  now  what  it  was 
then ;  and  as  such,  it  is  not  merely  of  secular  good  to  a  few.  Hence, 
Bays  Paul,  "7/"  ye  be  Chrisfs,  then  are  ye  Abraham's  seed,  and  heirs 
ACCORDING  TO  THE  PROMISE."  The  gospcl  was  preached  to  Abraham 
when  the  promise  was  made.  And  the  blessings  of  that  covenant  were 
partially  revealed  and  bestowed  under  the  law  of  Moses.  At  that 
time  it  bore  the  mark  or  seal  of  circumcision.  But  in  these  gospel 
days,  God  has  appointed  baptism  as  the  sign  or  seal. 

The  right  of  infants  to  this  seal  with  all  its  blessings  has  once  been 
secured  to  them  by  Divine  authority :  the  law  securing  this  right  has 
never  been  repealed — of  necessity,  therefore,  the  right  still  remains. 
And  it  is  the  boundcn  duty  of  all  believers  in  Christ  to  imitate  the 
illustrious  father  of  the  faithful,  by  stamping  upon  their  infant  off- 
spring the  seal  of  the  covenant  of  their  God.  True,  the  outward  sign 
and  seal  of  the  gospel  doctrine  and  privileges  has  been  changed  so  as 
to  suit  the  genius  of  the  present  dispensation ;  but  the  right  of  infant 
children  to  all  the  privileges  of  God's  gracious  covenant  has  never 
been  affected  thereby — it  remains  the  very  same ;  and  he  who  asserts 
otherwise,  proves  to  all  who  are  at  all  acquainted  with  the  theology 
of  the  Bible  that  he  is  ignorant  of  the  doctrines  of  that  book,  and  de- 
serves himself  to  be  instructed  in  the  science  of  salvation. 

I  am  aware  that  immcrsionists  object  to  the  idea  of  baptism  coming 
in  place  of  circumcision,  from  the  circumstance  of  its  not  being  ap- 
plied to  females.  This  objection  is  not  valid.  For,  first,  nature  has 
rendered  it  impracticable ;  and,  next,  woman,  especially  under  the 
Patriarchal  and  Jewish  dispensations,  was  identified  with,  and  in 
every  thing  represented  by  man.  Hence,  as  believers  are  said  by  St. 
Paul  to  be  circumcised  by  the  circumcision  of  Christ,  so  were  women 
circumcised  by  the  circumcision  of  man.  That  this  was  the  case  is 
evident,  because  none  were  admitted  to  eat  the  .Jewish  passover  ex- 
cept the  circumcised  ;  and  yet  females  were  entitled  to  eat  the  pass- 
over,  and  did  so. — See  Exodus  xii.  48. 

But  the  passover  was  in  the  Jewish  Church  what  the  Lord's  supper 
is  among  Christians. — See  1  Cor.  v.  7,  8.  Will  any  Baptist  deny 
women  the  right  to  the  Lord's  supper?  The  Scriptures  allow  them 
the  right,  although  there  is  just  as  little  plain  and  direct  Scripture  to 
prove  that  females  should  now  partake  of  the  Lord's  supper.  But 
circumcision  was  necessary  in  all  who  partook  of  the  passover,  as 
baptism  is  now  necessary  in  all  who  partake  of  the  Lord's  supper. 
The  conclusion  then  is  irresistible,  that  the  right  of  females  to  the 
privileges  of  the  Church  under  the  former  dispensation  was  secured 

9* 


202  THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

to  them  by  the  relation  they  sustained  to  the  male  part  of  Abraham's 
desceijdant,s,  who  bore  in  their  flesh  the  external  seal  of  God's  gracious 
covenanc.  Hence  it  is  that  they  are  now  admitted  to  the  Lord's  sup- 
per, without  any  positive  precept  showing  their  right  thereto. 

One  other  idea,  and  I  close  this  chapter.  I  have  proven 
beyond  the  reach  of  cavil  that  baptism  stands  in  lieu  of  cir- 
cumcision,  sealing  the  same  blessing  now  that  once  was  sealed 
with  blood.  I  have  also  shown  that  haptism,  no  matter  how 
administered,  or  by  whom,  under  the  Christian  dispensation, 
is  the  door  into  the  Church.  That  it  is  the  door  by  which 
persons  enter  the  Church,  even  Baptists  admit,  provided  we 
agree  to  immersion  as  the  mode.  For  their  sakes,  and  for 
the  sake  of  the  argument,  I  will  allow  that  baptism  by  im- 
mersion is  the  door  into  the  Church.  What  a  ridiculous  light 
this  admission  places  the  Baptists  of  this  country  in  before  a 
refined  and  civilized  world !  How  do  they  enter  the  Church 
of  God  ?  They  come  in  backwards,  or,  if  the  reader  please, 
wrong  end  foremost!  They  back  into  the  Church,  as  a  goat 
retreats  from  his  adversary,  which,  if  not  an  insult  to  God,  is 
not  in  accordance  with  good-breeding.  Suppose  you  knock 
at  my  door  or  ring  my  door-bell  for  entrance  :  I  appear,  open 
my  door,  and  politely  invite  you  to  a  seat  in  my  parlor.  You 
bow,  but  wheel  about,  and  bach  into  my  house :  have  I  not 
cause  to  feel  insulted  ?  God  sends  forth  his  ministers  to  in- 
vite men  into  his  Church :  they  accept  the  invitation,  and, 
with  their  consent,  suffer  Baptist  preachers  to  pnish  them  in 
backwards,  as  though  they  feel  that  they  are  doing  something 
so  mean,  that  they  are  unwilling  to  face  up  to  the  act !  What 
must  the  Almighty  think  of  such  an  approach  to  his  Ma- 
jesty? 

Now,  the  Bunkers,  a  denomination  founded  by  a  German 
in  1724,  are  immersionists :  they,  too,  hold  that  baptism  is 
the  door  into  the  Church,  and  they  act  consistently  by  plunging 
their  subj  ects  faces  foremost.   They  are  trine  immersionists,  and 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  203 

plunge  their  subjects  three  times, yjxces  foremost ,  with  laying 
on  the  hands  and  prayer — thus  entering  the  Church  of  God 
like  men  conscious  of  rectitude  of  purpose,  and  engage  in 
taking  upon  themselves  obligations  of  which  they  are  not 
ashamed !  When  Presbyterians,  Methodists,  Episcopalians, 
and  others,  baptize  either  infants  or  adults,  they  introduce 
their  subjects  faces  foremost!  Our  Baptist  brethren  are  al- 
most alone  in  their  vulgarity  in  hacking  into  the  Church  of 
God! 


204       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 


CHAPTER  X. 

Elder  Graves  against  the  Metlaodist  views  of  Baptism — John's  baptism 
considered,  both  as  to  its  nature  and  design,  its  origin  and  mode — 
John's  was  not  the  Christian  baptism — He  did  not  practice  immer- 
sion— Christ's  baptism  considered — The  design  that  of  complying 
with  the  requirements  of  the  law  of  Moses — The  mode  not  that  of 
immersion — Indecent  exhibition  of  females  when  immersed  ! 

On  page  366  Elder  Graves  commences  his  thirtieth  chap- 
ter; and  with  his  misrepresentations  of  Methodism,  and  his 
ultra,  not  to  say  dogmatical  views  upon  the  subject  o^  Baptism, 
he  covers  twelve  pages.  That  the  reader  may  see  the  drift 
of  his  arguments,  which  are  more  after  the  order  of  bold 
assertions  than  of  logical  reasonings,  and  that  too  much  of 
my  space  may  not  be  occupied  with  his  slang,  I  will  give  only 
the  heading  of  his  chapter.  This  heading  indicates  not  only 
what  he  has  said  in  this  chapter,  but  is  an  index  to  most  of 
what  follows,  in  several  other  chapters,  upon  the  subject  of 
Baptism.     It  is  as  follows  : 

Inconsistencies — Admitting  acknoidedged  siyiners  into  the  Church,  and 
debarring  for  six  months  an  acknowledged  Christian  from  entering! — 
Giving  baptism  by  force  to  non-believing  children  and  unconscious 
infants,  and  refusing  baptism  to  the  professed  Christian  for  six  months! 

I  will  here  premise  that,  throughout  Mr.  Graves's  book, 
he  mixes  up  the  subject  of  Baptism  with  what  he  says  about 
Church  government,  doctrines,  and  discipline;  and  John's 
baptism — the  mode  and  subjects  thereof;  Christ's  baptism — 
its  mode  and  subjects^  and  its  design,  all  come  in  for  a  share 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  205 

of  his  attention.  I  will  notice  these  somewhat  in  detail ;  and, 
in  doing  so,  place  before  the  numerous  readers  of  this  work 
such  facts  and  arguments,  and  scriptural  quotations,  as  I  de- 
sire them  to  read  and  reflect  upon. 

A  variety  of  views  are  entertained  in  relation  both  to  the 
nature  and  mode  of  John's  baptism.  Mr.  Graves  and  his 
ultra  Baptist  associates  regard  it  as  identical  with  Christian 
baptism ;  while  others,  myself  among  the  number,  believe  that 
John's  was  not  the  Christian  baptism.  It  is  not  at  all  to  be 
wondered  that  the  advocates  of  exclusive  immersion  should 
take  the  ground  that  John's  baptism  was  the  Christian  bap- 
tism, but  it  is  truly  unaccountable  that  liberal-minded  men  of 
intelligence,  who  have  attentively  perused  and  studied  the 
Bible,  should,  in  any  instance,  have  come  to  such  an  erro- 
neous conclusion.  I  have  no  idea  that  John's  was  the 
Christian  baptism )  and,  therefore,  let  the  mode  have  been 
what  it  may,  it  can  have  no  sort  of  tendency  to  fix  the  evan- 
gelical mode  of  Christian  baptism.  But  I  intend  to  take  the 
bold  ground  that  John  did  not  immerse,  and  I  defy  any  im- 
mersionist  to  prove  that  he  did.  My  first  object,  however, 
shall  be  to  show  that  John's  was  not  the  Christian  baptism. 
And  in  order  to  demonstrate  this  fact,  I  remark,  first,  that  the 
immediate  institutor  of  John's  baptism  was  God  the  Father. 
Here  I  will  again  introduce  copious  extracts  from  a  small  work 
I  published  upon  Baj^tlsm,  in  1842,  when  I  had  access  to  all 
the  best  authorities  extant;  and  although  I  have  now  had 
fourteen  years  for  reflection,  my  views  upon  the  points  dis- 
cussed have  undergone  no  change  : 

"He  that  sent  me  to  baptize,  the  same  said  unto  me,  Upon  whom 
thou  shalt  see  the  Spirit  descending  and  remaining  on  him,  the  same 
is  he  which  baptizeth  with  the  Holy  Ghost," — John  i.  23.  Here  God 
the  Father  commissioned  John  to  administer  baptism,  and  pointed  out 
to  him  Christ,  not  as  the  ijistitutor,  but  as  a  subject  of  his  baptism^ 
Christ  the  Son  of  God  the  Father.  "Go  ye,  therefore,  and  teach  all 
nations,  baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son, 


206  THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  teaching  them  to  observe  all  things,  whatsoever 
I  have  commanded  you." — Matt,  xxviii.  I'J,  20,  Here,  we  say,  Christ 
institutes  a  baptism,  and  points  to  his  disciples,  the  inhabitants  of 
"<?//  nations,"  as  his  subjects.  In  this  case  Christ  is  the  institutor,  but 
not  the  subject — in  the  former  case  he  was  a  subject,  but  not  the  insti- 
tutor. Can  any  thing  be  more  plain?  Certainly  not.  How  then  can 
these  two  baptisms  be  the  same  ?  They  are  no  more  the  same  tlian 
are  the  Mosaic  and  Christian  dispensations  the  same.  They  are  no 
more  the  same  than  are  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  one  and  the 


2d.  John's  baptism  was  strictly  confined  to  the  Jews,  but  the 
Christian  baptism  was  directed  to  be  administered  to  all  nations. 
John's  baptism  was,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  a  Jeivish  ordinance. 
For  that  is  a  Jewish  ordinance  which  is  confined  to  the  Jews.  John's 
baptism  was  confined  to  the  Jewish  Church;  therefore,  it  was  a  Jewish 
ordinance. 

3d.  John's  baptism  was  the  concluding  scene  of  the  legal  dispensa- 
tion, and  one  of  those  divers  washings  in  use  among  the  Jews,  men- 
tioned in  Hebrews:  "Which  stood  only  in  meats  and  drinks,  and 
divers  washings,  and  carnal  ordinances,  imposed  on  them  (the  Jews) 
until  the  time  of  reformation." — Heb.  ix.  10. 

4th.  John's  baptism  introduced  persons  into  the  Jewish  Church 
without  any  attempt  to  alter  Jewish  forms  of  worship ;  nor  is  there 
any  account  in  the  New  Testament  that  his  disciples  ceased  to  be 
members  of  the  Jewish  Church,  during  his  lifetime,  on  account  of 
their  baptism.  They  continued  subject  to  all  those  ordinances;  but 
the  subjects  of  Christ's  baptism  are  not  subject  to  Jewish  ordinances. 

5th.  John's  baptism  was  unto  repentance,  and  taught  its  subjects 
to  believe  in  a  Saviour  to  come,  while  it  was  without  any  regular  form : 
the  Christian  baptism  is  different,  and  is  in  the  name  of  the  Father, 
Son,  and  Holy  Ghost. 

6th.  John's  baptism  was  not  only  a  token  of  penitence,  but  it  sealed 
the  faith  of  its  subjects  in  a  Messiah  to  come,  and  to  suffer  for  the 
sins  of  the  world ;  but  the  baptism  instituted  by  Christ  covdd  not  seal 
such  a  faith  without  sealing  a  lib,  because  Christ  has  come,  suffered, 
and  died,  and  entered  into  the  place  of  his  glory,  angels  and  princi- 
palities being  subject  unto  him. 

7th.  John's  baptism  commenced  being  administered  six  months 
before  the  establishment  of  Christianity  itself,  or  before  our  Lord 
entered  upon  his  public  ministry !  And  according  to  the  doctrine  of 
the  Baptists  on  this  subject,  Christ  did  not  institute  Christian  baptism 
unless  he  instituted  it  before  he  entered  upon  his  public  ministry; 
which  no  man  in  his  proper  mind  will  affirm. 

8th.  John's  baptism  was  distinctive  in  its  name.  It  was  justly 
called  ^'■Johi's  baptism.^''  And  this  distinctive  appellation  is  given  to 
it,  in  part,  to  distinguish  it  from  the  baptism  of  Christ,  or  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  Why  was  it  never  called  any  thing  in  the  Bible  but  John's 
baptism?  The  Bible  calls  things  by  their  proper  names.  The  bap- 
tism which  Christ  instituted  could  not  be  called  John's  baptism,  for 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  207 

this  would  be  as  egregious  a  nickname  as  it  would  be  to  call  it  Peter^s 
baptism,  the  baptism  of  Paul,  Timothy,  or  Philip — as  these  men  bap- 
tized— and  so  on,  ad  infinitum. 

9th.  John's  baptism  was  not  regarded  by  the  apostles,  and  hence 
they  rebaptized  his  disciples.  Twelve  of  them  were  baptized  over 
again  by  St.  Paul,  at  Ephesus.  See  Acts  xix.  1-7.  These  persons 
were  Hellenist  Jews,  who  had  heard  John  preach  in  Judea  twenty-six 
years  before  they  were  taken  into  the  Christian  Church  by  St.  Paul. 
They  had  heard  John's  doctrine  and  embraced  it,  and  had  received  his 
baptism ;  but,  after  returning  to  their  own  country,  they  heard  that 
this  evangelical  dispensation  of  the  Holy  Ghost  had  taken  place,  re- 
ceived their  first  intelligence  of  the  fact  from  St.  Paul,  and,  upon  a 
profession  of  their  faith  in  Christ,  were  baptized  into  that  faith.  This 
rebaptisra  these  persons  never  would  have  submitted  to,  if  they  had 
believed  the  dogma  that  John's  was  the  Christian  baptism — much  less 
would  the  holy  apostles  have  profaned  the  ordinance  by  rebaptizing. 

10th.  John's  baptism  could  not  have  been  the  Christian  baptism; 
for,  if  it  were,  then  most  unquestionably  his  disciples  were  christian- 
ized. If  so,  then  the  greater  part  of  the  Jewish  nation  were  Christ- 
ians at  the  very  point  of  time  in  which  Christ  opened  his  ministry, 
and  established  Christianity !  John  baptized,  in  all,  three  millions  of 
persons.  If  this  mighty  nation  were  christianized  before  Christ 
entered  upon  his  ministry,  they  afterwards  backslid;  for  it  is  notorious 
that  they  became  the  most  imbittered  and  malignant  foes  of  the 
Christian  name.  And  our  Baptist  friends  would  be  as  unwilling  to 
admit  their  apostasy,  as  they  are  to  allow  that  John's  was  not  the 
Christian  baptism ! 

I  will  now  proceed  to  speak  of  John's  mode  of  baptism. 
I  have  regularly  read  the  Bible  through  fifteen  times  during 
the  last  twenty  years,  and  the  New  Testament  twenty  times, 
besides  the  commentaries,  sermons,  and  other  theological 
works  of  many  distinguished  divines,  both  in  Europe  and 
America,  and,  hitherto,  I  have  been  wholly  unable,  as  I  still 
am,  to  make  the  discovery  that  John  practiced  immersion. 
And  in  attempting  to  show  that  he  did  not  immerse,  I  shall 
not  extend  my  remarks  in  this  chapter,  as  the  subject  will 
again  come  up  under  the  general  head  of  the  mode  of 
Christian  baptism.  My  argument  on  this  point,  for  ihQ 
time  being,  at  least,  will  be  rather  novel  than  otherwise,  as  I 
propose  to  found  it  on  the  population  of  Palestine,  the  pro- 
bable proportion  of  that  population  baptized  by  John,  and  the 
length  of  time  he  was  employed  in  his  public  ministry.    Here, 


208  THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED. 

again,  I  introduce  my  arguments  of  1842,  which,  outside 

of  ray  own  views,  are  an  epitome,  summary,  or  abstract,  of 
the  views  of  Ilibhard  and  other  distinguished  authors  on 
Christian  Baptism : 

1.  The  population  of  the  country  in  which  John's  labors  were  per- 
formed. Many  of  our  readers  will  be  surprised  to  learn  that  at  the 
commencement  of  the  Christian  era  the  popidation  of  Palestine  was 
much  greater,  in  proportion  to  its  extent  of  territory,  than  that  of 
the  mining  districts  in  England,  or  any  section  of  the  United  States. 
Various  circumstances  contributed  to  the  formation  of  a  dense  mass 
of  inhabitants,  a  few  only  of  -which  are  necessary  to  be  noticed. 
Among  these  few  were  the  religious  predilection  of  the  Jews  for  their 
own  native  soil,  and  their  great  aversion  to  the  manners  and  customs 
of  all  other  nations.  Besides,-  their  religion  was  national,  and  pecu- 
liarly their  own — a  circumstance  which  at  once  cut  off  all  intercourse 
with  other  nations.  These  three  considerations  alone  prevented  emi- 
gration, and  confined  the  Jews  within  their  own  narrow  limits — their 
own  territory.  Hence,  the  Jews  never  thought  of  planting  themselves 
on  heathen  soil  till  the  disastrous  results  of  the  Assyrian  and  Baby- 
lonian invasions  had  routed  them  from  the  land  of  their  nativity,  and 
the  graves  of  their  fathers.  Hence,  also,  we  are  not  astonished  to 
find,  in  the  days  of  King  David,  a  million  and  a  half  of  "valiant  men 
that  drew  the  sword,"'  exclusive  of  the  tribes  of  Levi  and  Benjamin. 
And  in  this  census  was  not  reckoned  any  persons  under  twenty  years 
of  age,  nor  yet  any  females.  Now,  if  we  reckon  five  persons  to  every 
warrior — which,  including  the  young,  iho,  aged,  the  infirm,  and  tho 
females,  to  say  nothing  of  the  tribes  of  Levi  and  Benjamin,  is  not  an 
extravagant  estimate — we  shall  make  the  entire  population  of  Pales- 
tine at  that  day  to  amount  to  sevex  millions  and  a  half.* 

Whoever,  therefore,  considers  the  foregoing  reasons  why  the  num- 
ber of  Jews  should  be  so  great  in  the  days  of  David,  their  great  aver- 
sion to  other  nations,  their  own  love  of  country,  their  universal 
passion  for  a  numerous  offspring,  their  remaining  strictly  within  the 
limits  of  Palestine,  and  the  immense  population  of  even  other  ancient 
nations,  will  not  deem  the  estimate  of  Josephus  an  exaggerated  one. 
Josephus  says  that  one  million  one  hundred  thousand  Jews  even  perished 
in  the  siege  of  Jerusalem,  A.  D.  70! 

2.  We  are  next  to  inquire  what  proportion  of  the  vast  population 
of  Palestine  attended  John's  ministry,  and  were  baptized  by  him.  On 
this  subject  a  lengthy  detail  of  arithmetical  calculation  is  not  called 
for.  A  few  general  facts,  founded  on  certain  express  declarations  of 
Scripture,  is  all  that  a  man  of  sense  will  require ;  and  a  fool  we  have 
no  disposition  to  contend  with. 

John  was  not  commissioned  to  go  to  any  sect  or  party,  but  to  the 

*  For  the  correctnesa  of  this  statement,  see  Josephus's  account  of  the  populatios 
of  Palestine,  A.  D.  66. 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  209 

entire  JeYrish  nation  resident  in  Palestine,  to  "prepare  the  way  of  the 
Lord."  He  was  unanimously  received  by  the  Jewish  nation ;  there  being 
no  division  of  sentiment  in  regard  to  him,  as  prevailed  in  reference  to 
Christ.  Even  the  Pharisees  and  Sadducees  submitted  to  his  baptism. 
So  popular  was  the  sentiment  that  John  was  a  divine  prophet,  that  the 
whole  Jewish  nation  was  ambitious  of  the  distinction  conferred  by  his 
baptism.  These  facts  alone  prove  most  conclusively  that  the  greater 
part  of  the  Jewish  people  were  baptized  by  John.  In  the  first 
chapter  of  Mark,  and  at  the  5th  verse,  we  find  these  remarkable 
words,  corroborating  our  statement:  "And  there  went  out  unto  him 
(John)  ALL  THE  LAXD  OF  JuDEA,  and  thcy  of  Jerusalem,  and  were  ALL 
baptized  of  him  in  the  river  of  Jordan,  confessing  their  sins."  Mat- 
thew and  Luke  say  the  same  thing,  in  substance.  Josephus,  the  great 
and  approved  Jewish  historian,  confirms  the  same  statement. 

The  land  of  Judea  comprehended  more  than  half  of  the  entire 
territory  of  Palestine,  Avest  of  the  river  Jordan.  By  "the  region 
round  about"  we  are  to  understand  the  great  and  fertile  valley  of  the 
Jordan,  lying  between  the  mountains  of  Israel  on  the  west,  and  those 
of  Hermon,  Gilead,  and  Abarim  on  the  east,  embracing  the  entire  ter- 
ritories of  Samaria,  Perea,  and  Galilee. 

Now,  to  make  the  most  liberal  calculation  in  favor  of  our  Baptist 
opponents,  let  us  suppose  that  John  baptized  but  one-half  of  the  entire 
population  of  Palestine — the  presumptioh  then  would  be  that  he  bap- 
tized, in  all,  upwards  of  three  and  a  half  millions  of  persons.  Now, 
mark,  it  was  the  duty  of  the  Jews  to  submit  to  John's  baptism.  Well, 
there  must  have  been  time  allowed  for  the  process — otherwise,  it  was 
not  the  duty  of  the  multitudes  to  submit.  But  a  natural  impossibi- 
lity precluded  such  an  act  of  submission,  if  immersion  were  the  mode 
of  baptism.  The  time  allotted  to  the  continuance  of  John's  ministry 
— his  physical  strength — the  manner  and  circumstances  essentially 
connected  with  a  valid  administration  of  baptism — all,  we  say,  taken 
into  the  account,  prove  most  conclusively  that  immersion  was  not 
John's  mode  of  baptizing. 

3.  The  foregoing  observations  bring  us,  as  a  matter  of  course,  to 
speak  of  the  duration  of  John's  public  ministry  The  evangelist  Luke 
informs  us  that  John  opened  his  ministry  in  the  fifteenth  year  of  the 
reign  of  Tiberius  Caesar,  which,  according  to  our  most  approved 
chronology,  answers  to  the  thirtieth  year  of  John's  life.  Chronolo- 
gers,  with  but  few  exceptions,  agree  that  our  Saviour  was  born  De- 
cember the  25th,  A.  M.  4000.  John  the  Baptist  was  born  the  24th  of 
June  previous,  and  consequently  was  six  months  older  than  Christ. 
For  the  scriptural  evidence  of  these  two  positions,  see  the  first  and 
third  chapters  of  Luke. 

The  -last  account  we  have  of  John,  previously  to  his  arrest  and 
imprisonment,  states  positively  that  he  was  "baptizing  at  Enon  near 
Salim."  This  was  immediately  after  our  Lord  had  attended  his  first 
Passover,  which,  according  to  the  manner  in  which  the  Jews  reckoned 
their  years,  i.  e.,  by  lunar  months,  was  celebrated  on  the  14th  day  of 
March.     The  inevitable  conclusion,    therefore,    is,    that  John  wag 


210       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

arrested  during  his  stay  at  Enon;  and  Christ,  in  x'iqw  of  the  commo- 
tion excited  in  Judea  by  that  event,  and  of  the  controversy  between 
the  Baptists  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Christians  on  the  other,  as  to 
•who  was  the  greater  man  of  tlie  two,  prudently  withdrew  for  a  season 
into  tlie  remoter  parts  of  Galilee. 

Thus  we  have  briefly  followed  John,  in  his  public  ministry,  during 
the  space  of  nine  months,  and  till,  by  the  by,  he  had  introduced 
Christ  to  the  Jews;  and  having  thus  fulfilled  the  object  of  his  mission, 
he  retired,  by  a  singular  providence,  from  the  field  of  his  labor  in  the 
month  of  April,  A.  D.  27.  That  John  continued  his  ministry  longer 
than  nine  months,  cannot  be  proven  from  the  Bible,  by  all  the  Baptist 
preachers  and  writers  in  existence;  and  the  utmost  limit  to  which 
his  labors  can  be  extended,  with  any  shadow  of  evidence,  is  ten 
months. 

With  the  remarks  now  submitted,  the  whole  chain  of  facts  runs 
thus : 

1st.  John  must  have  preached  several  days,  or  even  weeks,  before 
he  began  to  baptize,  as  the  people  were  not  likely  to  submit  to  his 
baptism  before  they  formed  some  tolerably  correct  acquaintance  with 
his  character  and  the  purport  of  his  mission. 

2d.  John's  nine  months  of  public  labor  included  the  winter  season, 
and  though  the  climate  in  Palestine  is  much  milder  than  ours,  still, 
those  who  are  acquainted  with  the  history  of  that  climate  know  that 
the  inhabitants  never  fail  to  experience  storms  in  the  winter,  and 
severe  rainy  seasons,  at  which  times  there  is  no  travelling  about. 
These  facts  will  require  a  second  deduction  of  lost  time. 

3d.  Forty  Sabbaths  of  lost  time,  which  is  more  than  one  month,  are 
to  be  deducted,  wherein,  according  to  the  Jewish  observance  of  those 
days,  it  was  unlawful  for  John  to  baptize.  This  will  leave,  in  all, 
about  220  days  in  which  we  may  reasonably  suppose  John  exercised 
the  functions  of  his  ministry. 

4th.  Our  estimate  is,  that  the  whole  number  of  hours  in  which 
John  was  employed  in  the  act  of  baptizing  amounted  to  about  one 
thousand  three  hundred,  supposing  him  to  have  devoted  six  hours  of 
each  day  to  the  work  of  baptizing,  which  is  a  liberal  allowance.  If 
he  immersed  according  to  the  modern  mode,  he  could  not  have  stood 
it  longer,  for  220  days  in  such  rapid  succession.  John  was  unsus- 
tained  by  miracles — made  no  pretensions  to  them — and  we  must  cal- 
culate his  labors  just  as  we  would  those  of  a  common  preacher  in  our 
day,  allowing  him  a  medium  ratio  of  bodily  strength.  The  conclusion 
then  is,  that  no  mortal  man — nor  even  a  beast — could  have  stood  in 
three  feet  water  six  hours  in  the  day,  for  220  days,  with  only  an  occa- 
sional rest  day,  caused  by  storms,  or  rain,  or  the  intervention  of  a 
Sabbath.  With  these  remarks  we  proceed  to  the  concluding  argument, 
and  hope  that  we  may  be  patiently  heard. 

First,  John  baptized,  in  all,  just  three  millions  of  human  beings. 
Next,  the  time  in  which  John  was  engaged  in  the  act  of  baptizing, 
did  not  exceed  one  thousand  and  three  hundred  hows.  This  gives  him 
a  fraction  over  two  thousand  to  the  hour,  thirty  to  each  minute,  or  one 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  211 

to  every  two  seconds!  This,  then,  is  baptizing  with  too  great  speed. 
No  mere  human  that  ever  lived  could  do  this.  No  sort  of  ceremony 
could  be  said  in  this  rapid  work.  No  man  on  earth  could  pass  along 
a  row  of  mortals,  and  pat  one  on  the  shoulders  for  every  two  seconds, 
much  less  plxmge  him  under  water  and  raise  him  up  again. 

The  conclusion,  then,  of  the  whole  matter  is,  that  it  is  wholly  im- 
practicable for  John  to  have  immersed  the  multitudes  he  is  said  to 
have  baptized.  But  we  are  asked  the  question,  in  what  way  could  he 
have  baptized  these  multitudes,  in  the  length  of  time  we  allow  him  to 
have  been  engaged  in  baptizing?  We  answer,  the  Jews  had  a  mode 
of  piarifying  the  people  by  dipping  a  branch  of  hyssop^  into  water,  and 
spri7ikling  it  upon  them.  It  is  said  of  Moses,  in  Heb.  ix.  19,  that  he 
took  the  blood  of  calves  and  of  goats,  and  with  hyssop  sprinkled  all 
the  people.  It  is  not  reasonable  to  suppose  that  John,  in  purifying 
with  water,  departed  from  the  usage  of  Moses.  For  had  he  introduced 
any  new  and  external  rite,  the  Jews  would  beyond  all  doubt  have 
disputed  his  authority.  But  we  have  no  account  of  such  dispute. 
Moreover,  John  was  not  sent,  as  he  himself  confessed,  to  abolish  the 
Jewish  rites,  but  to  observe  them,  and  to  give  a  new  impetus  to  the 
Mosaic  religion  by  ui'ging  upon  the  Jews  the  necessity  of  repentance 
and  baptism. 

I  shall  here  consider  Christ's  baptism;  and  although  I 
intend  brevity,  I  shall  assign  to  the  baptism  of  our  Saviour 
special  importance.  Having  concluded  my  remarks  on  John's 
baptism,  something  special  should  be  said  of  the  baptism  of 
Christ ;  and  the  present  stage  of  the  general  argument  is  the 
appropriate  place  for  such  remarks.  It  cannot  be  charged  that 
I  am  wandering  from  the  issues  made  by  Elder  Graves,  be- 
cause he,  and  all  immersionists,  rely  upon  the  baptism  of  our 
Saviour  as  affording  unquestionable  authority  for  their  modcy 
and  that,  too,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  modes.  I  quote 
again  from  my  work  on  Baptism  : — 

As  to  the  mode  of  the  Saviour's  baptism,  the  Scriptures  do  not  say 
whether  it  was  by  pouring,  sprinkling,  or  immersion;  but  as  the  great 
probability  is  that  John  did  not  immerse,  we  may  reasonably  infer 
that  Christ  was  not  immersed.  At  all  events,  the  only  information 
aiForded  in  the  New  Testament  as  to  the  mode,  is  what  we  gather 
from  the  import  of  the  word  baptize.  This  word  is  derived  from  the 
Greek  word  baptizo,  and  more  remotely  from  bapto,  and  properly 
signifies  a  washing ;    and  the  learned  agree  that  whether   the   sub- 

*  Hyssop  is  an  herb  generally  known,  and  often  mentioned  in  Scripture.  The 
hyssop  commonly  i;sed  in  purification  as  a  sprinkler  was  a  sort  of  reed  or  cane,  like 
a  sponge  at  the  end,  which  was  imbued  with  the  blood,  etc. 


212  THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

stance  washed,  cleansed,  or  purified,  be  partially  or  wholly  immersed 
in  the  liquid,  or  the  liquid  be  applied  to  the  substance,  it  is  alike 
baptism.  Brown  says,  in  his  Encyclopedia,  that  to  apply  the  liquid 
or  element  by  pouring,  running,  rubbing,  dropping,  sprinkling,  or 
elfusion,  is  baptism  to  all  intents  and  purposes.  But  as  we  intend  to 
enlarge  on  this  topic  in  another  place,  we  say  no  more  at  present. 

The  character  of  Christ's  baptism  is  a  question  of  far  greater  im- 
portance, and  is  more  immediately  connected  with  the  subject-matter 
iu  dispute,  than  that  of  the  mode  can  be.  Our  Baptist  brethren  have 
assumed  that  the  Saviour  received  a  Christian  baptism.  We  take  the 
negative  side  of  this  question.  Hence,  the  whole  task  which  devolves 
upon  us  is  to  disprove  the  correctness  of  their  assumption.  There- 
fore, let  the  end,  the  nature,  origin,  object,  or  design  of  the  Saviour's 
baptism  have  been  what  it  may,  one  thing  is  certain — it  did  not  partake 
of  the  nature  of  Christian  baptism.  Stick  a  pin  down  here,  0  ye  im- 
mersionists !  blow  the  dust  of  prejudice  out  of  your  eyes,  and  look  at 
the  scriptural  truths  which  we  now  present. 

1st.  John  baptized  his  subjects  '■'■unto  repentance,^^  and  in  testimony 
of  the  fact  that  they  had  repented.  Therefore,  if  our  Lord's  baptism 
partook  of  the  nature  of  John's,  inasmuch  as  the  latter  witnessed  to 
the  repentance  of  the  candidate,  the  Saviour  must  have  previously 
repented  of  sin  !     Will  any  one  endorse  this  blasphemous  sentiment  ? 

2d.  But  the  proper  import  of  John's  baptism  could  not  apply  to  the 
Saviour  in  any  form.  The  ultimate  design  of  John's  baptism  was  to 
"prepare  the  way  of  the  Lord."  This  was  the  great  aim  of  all  his 
labors.  Was  our  Saviour  baptized  with  this  intent?  But  it  is  idle  to 
extend  these  arguments.  If  a  man  is  so  stupid,  or  so  ignorant  and 
uninformed,  as  to  support  the  hypothesis  we  are  opposing,  it  is  doubt- 
less trifling  with  time  and  with  reason  to  oppose  him. 

3d.  But  John  required  of  the  candidate  for  baptism,  faith  in  a 
Messiah  to  come.  If,  therefore,  Christ  was  baptized  in  the  faith  of 
John's  baptism,  he  must  have  believed  in  a  Messiah  to  come,  and  to 
this  faith  John  must  have  exhorted  him.  Need  we  dwell  upon  the 
absurdity  of  such  a  doctrine  ?     Certainly  not. 

4th.  The  baptism  of  the  Saviour,  known  as  the  Christian  baptism, 
was  not  instituted  till  after  the  resurrection  of  our  Saviour.  See 
Matt,  xxviii.  18,  19,  See  also  other  parallel  passages,  which  show 
that  the  Christian  baptism  was  never  administered  until  the  day  of 
Pentecost.  The  conclusion,  then,  is  inevitable,  that  if  Christ  received 
Christian  baptism  at  the  hands  of  John,  it  was  three  years  before  the 
actual  institution  of  that  ordinance,  which  is  as  blasphemous  as  it  is 
absurd. 

5th,  Christian  baptism,  to  be  such,  must  be  performed  in  the  name 
of  "the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  But  is 
there  not  an  inconceivable  absurdity  in  the  idea  of  Christ's  being 
baptized  in  his  oivn  name,  and  as  an  evidence  of  his  devotedness  to  hii 
own  cause  and  person?  Yet  this  we  must  believe,  if  we  suppose  that 
Christ  received  Christian  baptism  at  the  hands  of  John. 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  213 


THE    DESIGN    OF    CHRIST'S    BAPTISM. 

Having  shown  that  the  baptism  of  our  Saviour  did  not  partake  of 
the  nature  of  John's  baptism,  it  devolves  upon  us  to  show  what  was 
the  real  design  of  Christ's  baptism,  and  wherein  lay  the  necessity  of 
his  being  baptized  at  all. 

The  Baptists  allege  that  our  Saviour  was  baptized  in  order  to  fur- 
nish his  followers  an  example.  At  the  same  time,  they  allege  that  he 
was  baptized  by  immersion.  Hence,  they  exhort  all  to  go  forth  and  be 
plunged,  thus  following  the  example  of  Christ!  The  effect  which 
this  mode  of  reasoning  has  upon  many  minds  is  truly  powerful, 
although  it  is  founded  in  falsehood.  In  the  whole  range  of  the  con- 
troversy between  immersionists  on  the  one  hand,  and  Pedobaptists  on 
the  other,  the  former  have  never  wielded  a  more  successful  argument 
[ad  captandum  vulgus)  than  this  appeal  to  the  example  of  Christ.  But 
we  demand  the  proof  of  this  assumption.  Is  it  to  be  found  in  the 
Bible  ?  No.  But  is  it  deducible  from  the  Bible  by  any  correct  rules 
of  criticism?  By  no  means.  Where  then  is  the  proof?  There  is  7io 
proof  of  such  doctrine,  save  in  the  frui/f id  imaginations  of  Baptists. 

On  the  other  hand,  that  our  Saviour  was  not  baptized  with  a  view 
to  furnish  his  followers  an  example,  may  be  deduced  from  the  sacred 
text  by  the  strictest  rules  of  criticism. 

1.  The  example  would  be  essentially  defective  in  one  of  its  most 
prominent  features.  Christ  was  thirty  years  old  when  he  was 
baptized.  Our  Baptist  friends,  therefore,  should  put  off  baptism  till 
they  are  of  this  age.  But  would  this  be  walking  in  the  commandments 
of  God,  blameless  ?  We  should  think  not.  Then,  if  Christ  set  this 
example  of  procrastination,  he  set  a  bad  example.  But  Luke  says, 
chapter  iii.  verse  21,  that  "all  the  people  were  baptized"  before  Christ 
submitted  to  the  ordinance.  Why  did  he  wait  till  all  the  people  went 
before  ?     Why  did  he  not  lead  the  way  ? 

2.  The  example,  if  it  be  such,  is  unreasonable,  because  partial.  If 
Christ  submitted  to  Christian  baptism  for  the  sake  of  furnishing  au 
example,  he  ought  to  have  done  the  same  thing  in  the  case  of  the 
Lord's  Supper.  Example  was  as  loudly  called  for  in  one  case  as  in  the 
other.  But  when  he  handed  the  cup  to  his  disciples,  he  said,  ^^ Drink 
YE  all  of  it,'''  etc. 

3.  But  does  the  Bible  furnish  us  with  any  reason  why  baptism  was 
necessary  in  the  case  of  the  Saviour  ?  Yes,  Christ  himself  gives  the 
true  reason  in  the  following  words,  in  reply  to  John's  scruples — "for 
thus  it  becometh  us  to  fulfil  all  righteousness."  This  answer,  let  its 
real  import  be  what  it  may,  perfectly  satisfied  John  of  the  propriety 
of  baptizing  Christ ;  and  all  the  reason  that  ever  subsisted,  rendering 
the  baptism  of  Christ  necessary,  is  couched  in  the  above  words  of  the 
Saviour.  The  only  point  to  be  established,  therefore,  is  the  real 
import  of  the  phrase,  ''to  fulfil  all  righteousness.''  Well,  the  import 
of  the  phrase  may  be  rendered  thus,  and  then  we  have  its  real  mean- 
ing: "For  thus  it  becometh  us  to  fulfil  every  institution  of  the 
law  of  Moses,  so  as  finally  to  answer  its  typical  intention,  and  not 


214       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

arbitrarily  to  dissolve  all  ohlif/ations  to  its  observance,  before  it  has  thus 
received  its  accomplishment  in  me." 

Then,  Christ's  obligation  to  baptism  grew  out  of  his  assumed  rela- 
tion to  the  law  as  our  Vicar,  it  being  a  function  of  his  priestly  char- 
acter to  accomplish  the  intent  of  tlie  Mosaic  ritual.  But  what  law 
was  there  in  vogue  which  required  the  Saviour  to  be  baptized  ?  We 
answer,  it  was  the  law  enjoining  and  regulating  priestly  consecration, 
as  will  be  seen  by  examining  the  code  of  Moses,  recorded  in  Exodus 
xxix.  and  Levit.  viii. ;  and  that  our  Saviour's  baptism  was  a  priestly 
consecration,  is  corroborated  by  all  the  accompanying  circumstances 
recorded  in  the  New  Testament.  And  when  Christ  exercised  the  office 
of  a  priest  in  purging  the  temple,  and  when  the  chief  priests  and 
elders  demanded  of  him,  on  that  occasion,  by  what  authority  he  did 
these  things,  he  appealed  to  John's  baptism  in  vindication  of  the 
authority  he  exercised.     See  Matt.  xxi.  12-27. 

Enough  has  now  been  said  to  rescue  the  baptism  of  Christ  from  the 
erroneous  construction  of  immersiouists.  If  our  remarks  are  founded 
in  reason  and  Scripture,  they  cannot  be  set  aside ;  if  not,  the  advo- 
cates of  immersion  will  overthrow  them. 

Certain  it  is  that  Christ,  if  he  intended  persons  should 
he  immersed,  never  intended  females  should  submit  to  the 
ordinance  in  that  public  way,  and  after  that  notoriously  vulgar 
fashion  of  the  Baptist  denomination,  at  their  baptisms  outside 
of  large  cities,  where  they  have  pools  and  preparations  for 
changing  their  garments.  The  usual  custom  throughout  the 
South  and  West  is  to  bandage  the  forehead  of  a  delicate  and 
beautiful  female,  and  tie  a  handkerchief  round  her  waist,  as  a 
sort  of  handle  for  an  awkward  Baptist  preacher  to  fasten 
upon ;  and  thus  she  is  led  into  the  water,  step  by  step,  in  the 
presence  of  a  mixed  multitude^  who  are  making  their  vulgar 
remarks  and  criticising  her  steps  as  she  fights  down  her  clothes^ 
which  rise  to  the  top  of  the  water,  and  float  round  her  deli- 
cate and  exposed  limbs  !  She  is  taken  by  the  preacher,  who 
fastens  one  hand  in  her  belt,  and  the  other  on  the  back  of  her 
head ;  and  after  planting  his  big  feet  firm  upon  the  bottom  of 
the  stream,  and  squaring  himself  as  though  he  were  about  to 
knock  a  beef  in  the  head,  he  plunges  her  into  the  water !  If, 
in  her  struggle  to  guard  against  strangling,  her  forehead  or 
face  should  not  go  under,  he  takes  his  hand  full  of  water,  and 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  2J0 

wets  the  parts,  as  thougti  suet  wetting  were  essential  to  her 
salvation !  Take,  for  instance,  the  following  extract  from  a 
leading  editorial  in  the  "Baptist  Banner  and  Pioneer,''  of 
February  24,  1842 — a  mammoth  sheet,  edited  hj  five  Baptist 
jireachers : 

We  regard  nothing  as  gospel  baptism  but  the  immersion  in  water 
of  a  believer,  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost. 

How  frequently  do  Baptist  ministers,  if  but  a  hand  or  a  part  of  the 
subject  be  uncovered  in  the  water,  immerse  again.  And  whoever 
thought  that  this  was  Anahaptism.  And  yet,  we  risk  nothing  in  say- 
ing that  it  is  as  decidedly  re-baptism,  as  it  would  be  to  reimmerse  an 
individual  who  had  been  immersed  by  a  Pedobaptist  minister,  [a 
Methodist,  Presbyterian,  etc.,]  OR  ANY  OTHER  UNAUTHORIZED 
ADMINISTRATOR ! 

On  different  occasions  I  have  witnessed  these  indecent  per- 
sonal exhibitions,  of  respectable  females  coming  out  of  the 
water  with  their  thin  garments  sticking  close  to  their  skin,  and 
exhibiting  their  muscles  and  make  in  so  revolting  a  manner, 
that  ladies  present  have  felt  constrained  to  surround  them,  so 
as  to  hide  their  persons  from  the  gaze  of  the  vulgar  throng. 
I  witnessed  this  disgusting  sight  several  times  in  the  spring 
of  1842,  at  the  edge  of  Green's  Mill-pond,  in  Jonesborough. 


216       THE  OREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 


CHAPTER    XI. 

The  Sacraments  of  Baptism  and  the  Supper  not  duly  administered  by 
Methodists — The  Methodist  not  a  Christian  or  Gospel  Church — 
Ought  not  so  to  be  recognized  by  Baptists — Methodists  baptize 
infants  and  unbelievers — Two  dreams  by  two  preachers — Seekers 
and  infants  entitled  to  baptism,  as  shown  from  Scripture  and 
reason. 

On  page  445  of  the  ^'  Wheel,"  Elder  Graves  thus  rebukes 
Methodist  preachers  for  administering  the  Lord's  supper  to 
seekers,  and  baptism  to  the  same  class  : — 

But  who  will  say  that  the  sacrament  of  baptism  is  duly  adminis- 
tered, when  administered  according  to  the  teachings  of  your  Disci- 
pline, explained  by  Mr.  Wesley,  and  the  standard  works  published  by 
your  Book  Concern  ?  And  what  intelligent  Christian  man  will  say 
that  the  Supper  is  duly  administered  in  your  Church,  when  it  is 
administered  to  unregenerated  and  unhapiized  seekers? 

I  repeat  what  I  have  before  said,  that,  according  to  the  above 
article,  your  societies  are  not  visible  churches  of  Christ,  and  ought  not 
to  be  so  recognized. 

On  page  435,  he  concludes  a  bitter  harangue  upon  bap- 
tism in  these  remarkable  words : — 

In  consideration  of  these  teachings,  can  Baptists,  with  any  kind  of 
reason,  be  called  upon  to  recognize  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Society 
as  a  Christian  or  Gospel  Church?  Is  it  a  congregation  of  believers, 
according  to  the  definition  of  the  Discipline,  in  which  the  word  of 
God  is  faithfully  preached,  and  the  ordinances  duly  administered  ? 

If  the  practice  of  Methodists  is  not  always  according  to  the  Disci- 
pline, it  is  only  because  the  preachers  and  members  violate  their 
solemn  oaths  and  promises  to  observe  it  in  "every  point,  great  and 
small;"  and  who  can  tell  what  it  would  be  were  it  not  for  the  counter- 
acting influence  of  Baptist  doctrines  and  practice  in  this  country? 


THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  217 

What  rigid  sectarian  proscription  characterizes  the  course 
of  Baptists  generally,  in  all  the  South  and  West !  I  am  here 
reminded  of  two  dreams  by  two  preachers,  the  one  a  Baptist, 
the  other  a  Methodist.  They  had  been  holding  a  protracted 
meeting  together,  which  lasted  for  days,  and  which  resulted 
in  the  conversion  of  a  number  of  souls  to  God.  The  two 
preachers  now  agreed  to  open  the  doors  of  their  respective 
churches,  and  gather  in  the  fruits  of  their  labors.  It  was 
agreed  that  the  Baptist  brother  should  lead  the  way.  He 
stated  to  the  audience  generally,  and  to  the  young  converts  in 
particular,  that  he  had  had  a  remarkable  dream,  in  which  he 
had  died  and  gone  to  hell!  His  Satanic  Majesty  received 
him  very  politely,  and  proposed  to  escort  him  through  all  the 
apartments  of  the  infernal  regions  before  assigning  to  him  his 
position.  He  travelled  extensively  through  the  dark  do- 
minions, and  met  with  quite  a  number  of  Methodists,  Episco- 
palians, Presbyterians,  and  Catholics,  but  did  not  see  one 
Baptist  in  all  the  infernal  regions — their  compliance  with  the 
ordinance  of  baptism  having  carried  them  all  safe  to  God's 
habitation  ! 

The  Methodist  minister  followed.  He  too  had  dreamed  a 
remarkable  but  similar  dream  !  He  had  died  and  gone  to 
hell,  as  he  stated  to  the  audience;  and,  like  his  Baptist 
brother,  the  Devil  had  conducted  him  through  all  his  dark 
dominions.  He  saw  "lots  and  squares"  of  Methodists,  Pres- 
byterians, Episcopalians,  and  Catholics,  but  not  a  single  Bap- 
tist. He  inquired  of  the  Devil,  with  anxious  solicitude,  if 
there  were  no  Baptists  there?  His  Satanic  Majesty  seized 
him  by  the  arm,  turned  him  suddenly  around,  and  said, 
<'  Come  out  here  !"  The  Devil  raised  a  large  trap-door  and 
pointed  to  a  multitude,  grappling  in  "a  lower  deep,"  and 
exclaimed,  ''These,  sir,  are  all  Baptists  holding  close  com- 
mmaonr'  The  result  was,  that  two  to  one  of  the  new  con- 
10 


218  THE    (IREAT    IRON    WUEEL    EXAMINED. 

verts  joined  the  Methodists,  as  they  did  not  wish  to  share  the 
tate  of  the  cZose  communionuts  ! 

I  have  premised  thus  much,  with  a  view  to  enlist  the 
reader's  attention  while  I  demonstrate  that  believers  are  not 
the  only  proper  subjects  of  Christian  baptism — that  all  other 
denominations  beside  Baptists  are  not  Antichrist ian — and 
last,  but  not  least,  while  I  give  Christian  examples  of  bap- 
tizing unconverted  adults,  and  show  that  they  are  proper 
subjects  of  Christian  baptism.  I  again  quote  from  my  book 
on  Baptism  : — 

Who  are  proper  subjects  of  Christian  baptism  ?  The  proper  an- 
swer to  this  question  is  one  of  great  importance  to  tlio  Christian 
Church  ;  for,  if  the  sentiments  of  the  Baptists  be  correct,  the  visible 
Church  of  Christ  on  earth  is  reduced  to  a  mere  handful  of  professing 
Christians — a  mere  "corporal's  guard,"  as  is  sometimes  said  of  a 
certain  political  clique  at  Washington.  The  true  point  at  issue, 
therefore,  is  this  :  Is  the  Baptist  Church,  so  called,  the  only  visible 
Church  of  Christ  on  earth,  as  alleged  by  Mr.  Howell,  [Graves,  and 
others  of  their  "faith  and  order;"]  or  do  other  professing  Christians, 
of  other  denominations,  belong  to  the  visible  body  of  Christ?  If 
none  are  proper  subjects  of  Christian  baptism  except  believing 
ADULTS,  then  the  Baptist  Church  is  the  only  Church  of  Christ  on 
earth,  and  all  the  rest  are  Churches  of  Antichrist;  inasmuch  as  the 
majority  of  all  the  members  of  all  other  denominations  are  baptized 
IN  THEIR  INFANCY.  This  is  a  horrid  conclusion,  we  allow  ;  but  des- 
perate as  it  is,  it  is  unavoidable,  provided  the  premises  of  the  Bap- 
tists, from  which  it  is  drawn,  be  correct.  Let  us,  then,  throw  the 
Baptist  argument  into  a  syllogistic  form.  The  Church  of  Christ,  say 
they,  is  composed  of  baptized  believers  only,  immersed  by  regular 
Baptist  preachers.  No  mode  is  baptism  but  immersion,  and  none 
are  baptized  but  such  as  are  members  of  the  Church  of  Christ  on 
earth — such  as  have  been  immersed,  by  regular  Baptist  preachers, 
after  they  became  believers.  This  is  the  argument.  And  if  this  con- 
clusion be  correct,  it  will  follow  that  none  are  Churches  of  Christ  but 
those  whose  members  were  immersed  after  they  became  believers, 
upon  a  profession  of  their  faith,  and  that,  too,  by  Baptist  preachers. 
But  a  large  majority  of  the  professing  world  are  Methodists,  Luther- 
ans, Presbyterians,  and  members  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  were 
baptized  before  thej'  were  capable  of  making  any  profession  of  their 
faith,  and  that,  too,  by  sprinkling;  therefore  the  Methodists,  Luther- 
ans, Presbyterians,  and  Episcopalians,  are  not  members  of  the  Church 
of  Christ.  This  conclusion  is  inevitable  likewise.  And  this  is  just 
what  the  Baptists  contend  for.  For,  says  Mr.  Howell,  on  page  275 
of  his  not-orious  book : 


THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED.  219 

We  are  not  Protestants,  nor  Dissenters,  Lutherans,  Calvinists,  Arrainians,  nor  iZe- 
formers.  but  what  we  have  been  in  all  ages,  THE  CHURCH  OF  OUR  LORD  JE- 
SUS CHRIST!! 

With  these  declarations  before  iis,  and  under  this  view  of  the  sub- 
ject, to  contend  for  the  validity  of  infant  baptism,  as  Methodi.-rts,  is 
to  contend  for  our  existence  as  a  Church  of  Christ ;  and  not  for  our^ 
only,  but  also  for  that  of  all  other  Churches  except  tlie  Baptists.  A 
principle,  then,  which  involves  such  important  conclusions  should  be 
supported  by  the  most  indubitable  evidence — by  evidence  far  more 
indubitable  than  the  Baptists  are  able  to  bring  forward.  And 
whether  the  sentiments  of  the  Baptists  on  this  subject  be  thus 
supported  or  not,  the  reader  will  see  before  we  have  done  with  this 
question. 

The  Methodists  baptize  three  classes  of  persons,  to  wit :  converted 
believers,  unconverted  believers,  and  infants.  And  for  doing  this  they 
have  Christian  examples  and  scriptural  commands.  That  believers 
in  Christ,  not  previously  baptized,  are  proper  subjects  of  Christian 
baptism,  is  not  denied  by  any  one.  On  this  point,  therefore,  there 
can  be  no  controversy.  And  by  a  believer  we  understand  the  Baptists, 
and  all  others  on  this  subject,  to  mean  one  who  is  a  believer  in 
the  full  sense  of  the  word;  that  is  to  say,  one  who  is  justified 
freely,  and  renewed  by  the  grace  of  God.  That  such  believers 
are  proper  subjects  of  baptism  is  not  doubted.  But  that  these 
are  the  only  proper  adult  subjects  of  Christian  baptism  is  explicitly 
denied. 

In  proof  of  this  position  just  assumed,  let  us  consider  a  few  of  the 
cases  recorded  in  the  New  Testament,  which  go  to  prove,  most  con- 
clusively, that  baptism  was  received  without  the  justification  or 
regeneration  of  the  subject  at  the  time  of  its  administration.  The 
first  case  of  this  description  is  the  well-known  case  of  the  Samari- 
tans, as  recorded  in  the  8th  chapter  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  In 
this  chapter  we  have  an  account  of  a  mission  of  Philip  to  Samaria,  a 
city  of  whose  inhabitants  it  is  said,  "And  the  people  with  one  accord 
gave  heed  unto  those  things  which  Philip  preached,  hearing  and  see- 
ing the  miracles  which  he  did."  The  sorcery  of  Simon,  and  its  effects 
upon  the  people  of  that  place,  having  been  introduced  by  the  evan- 
gelist, he  thus  continues  the  account  of  the  Samaritans :  "But  when 
they  believed  Philip,  preaching  the  things  concerning  the  kingdom  of 
God,  and  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  they  were  baptized,  both  men  and 
women."  We  have  here,  in  a  very  concise  manner,  the  religious 
character  and  history  of  the  Samaritans,  up  to  the  time  of  their  bap- 
tism. They  had  been  aliens  from  the  true  God,  and  outcasts  from 
Israel ;  as  such,  Philip  preached  to  them ;  under  his  ministry  they 
were  convinced  of  the  truth  and  divinity  of  Christianity;  and  upon  a 
faith  which  assented  to  the  truths  which  he  advanced  they  were  bap- 
tized. Let  any  one  interested  turn  to  the  history,  and  it  will  be  seen 
that  not  one  word  is  said  about  the  remission  of  sins,  or  about  these 
Samaritans  having  received  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost.     The  nearest 


220  THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED. 

they  approached  to  a  Christian  character  was,  they  were  baptized  pen- 
itently, who  cxorcisod  honestly  and  conscientiously  what  theologians 
call  a  historical  faith.  It  is  not  said  in  the  inspired  word  that  they 
believed  in  Christ,  or  oji  Clirist  Jesus,  to  the  saving  of  their  souls  ; 
but  it  is  simply,  though  distinctly  stated,  that  "They  believed  the 
things  concerning  the  name  of  Jesus.  This  view  of  the  case  is  fully 
sustained  by  the  following  statements,  found  in  this  same  chapter, 
and  at  the  14th  including  the  lOth  verse: 

Now,  when  the  apostles  which  were  at  Jerusalem  heard  that  Samaria  had  re- 
ceived the  word  of  God,  tliey  tient  unto  them  I'eter  and  John,  who,  when  they  were 
come  down,  prayed  for  them  that  they  might  receive  the  Holy  Ghost,  (for  as  net  lie 
had  fallen  on  none  of  them  ;  only  they  were  baptized  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus.) 
Then  laid  they  their  hands  on  them,  and  they  received  the  Holy  Ghost. 

A  clearer  case  than  the  foregoing,  of  persons  receiving  Christian 
baptism  without  regeneration,  or  without  an  "experience  of  grace," 
as  the  Baptists  term  it.  could  not  be  presented.  It  speaks  its  own 
language.  It  proves  that  genuine  penitents  are  as  proper  subjects  of 
this  ordinance  as  are  justified  believers. 

But  if  further  proof  were  wanting  to  establish  this  point,  we  mean 
that  a  person  who  has  not  the  faith  of  a  justified  child  of  God  may 
nevertheless  be  a  proper  subject  of  Christian  baptism,  we  have  it  in 
the  case  of  Simon  Magus.  Speaking  of  this  case,  the  inspired  histo- 
rian says:  "Then  Simon  himself  believed  also;  and  when  he  was 
baptized,  he  continued  with  Philip,  and  icondered." — Acts  viii.  13. 
Here  it  is  eipressly  said  Simon  believed  and  was  baptized.  And  yet, 
Peter  said  to  him  after  this  :  "  Thou  hast  neither  part  nor  lot  in  this 
matter;  for  thy  heart  is  not  right  in  the  sight  of  God."  And  again, 
"Thou  art  in  the  gall  of  bitterness,  and  in  the  bond  of  iniquity." 
Therefore,  that  Simon  was  neither  a  justified  believer  nor  a  true  peni- 
tent is  certain.  What,  then,  was  his  state  ?  Either  he  never  was 
converted,  or  he  had  fallen  from  grace.  We  leave  the  Baptists  to 
determine  this  question  for  themselves.  To  say  that  he  never  had 
that  degree  and  kind  of  faith  which  would  entitle  him  to  Christian 
baptism,  or  render  him  a  proper  subject  of  it,  would  be  to  censure 
the  administrator  Philip,  and  flatly  to  contradict  the  testimony  of  the 
inspired  historian,  who  says — not  that  Simon  professed  to  believe,  but 
that  he  did  believe,  and  was  baptized.  What,  then,  was  Simon's  true 
state  ?  Why,  he  believed  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  the  true  Mes- 
siah, and  had  some  undefiiied  desires  to  be  saved  through  his  grace, 
while  he  was  destitute  of  the  faith  of  a  Christian  believer.  And  yet, 
Simon  was  a  proper  subject  of  Christian  baptism,  or  Philip,  the  in- 
spired administrator,  was  guilty  of  profaning  the  ordinance.  From 
the  foregoing  considerations,  we  consider  that  a  person  may  be  a 
proper  subject  of  Christian  baptism  who  has  never  obtained  the 
forgiveness  of  his  sins,  or  rather  the  regenerating  grace  of  God.  And 
by  a  proper  subject  of  Christian  baptism,  we  mean  one  who  is  not  to 
be  rebaptized. 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  221 

INFANT  CHILDREN  PROPER  SUBJECTS  OF  CHRISTIAN 
BAPTISM. 

That  the  infant  children  of  baptized  parents  are  as  proper  subje  t? 
of  Christian  baptism  as  are  adult  believers,  is  maintained  by  Method- 
ists, Presbyterians,  Lutherans,  Episcopalians,  and  others,  but  denied 
by  Baptists.  Here,  therefore,  these  denominations  and  the  Baptists 
are  plainly  at  issue.  Let  us,  then,  hear  the  grounds  on  which  "the 
only  Church  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ"  rests  its  objections  to  the  bap- 
tism of  infants. 

1st.  They  (the  Baptists)  object  that  there  is  no  explicit  warrant  for 
baptizing  infants  in  the  New  Testament — there  is  no  "  Thus  saith  the 
Lord,"  authorizing  the  baptism  of  infants;  and  hence  they  conclude 
that  infants  should  not  be  baptized.  That  there  is  no  such  explicit 
warrant  for  the  baptism  of  infants,  we  have  the  candor  freely  to  ac- 
knowledge. But  an  explicit  Avarrant  is  altogether  unnecessary^  when 
the  right  of  infants  to  Christian  baptism  can  be  proved  by  other 
legitimate  scriptural  evidence.  Those  who  complain  that>we  have  no 
"Thus  saith  the  Lord"  for  baptizing  infants,  in  effect  dictate  to  the 
infinitely  wise  God  in  what  manner  he  shall  reveal  his  will  to  us.  Our 
duty  is  humbly,  thankfully,  and  reverently  to  receive  his  revelation 
as  he  has  been  pleased  to  communicate  it  to  the  world.  The  Baptists, 
therefore,  ;5hould  not  say  there  is  no  explicit  warrant  for  infant  bap- 
tism, and  that  in  consequence  thereof  they  should  not  be  baptized. 
But  if  they  object  at  all,  they  should  take  the  ground,  that  there  is  no 
SCRIPTURAL  AUTHORITY  for  infant  baptism,  and  therefore  they  should 
not  be  baptized.  But  they  will  not  take  this  ground,  because  they 
know  that  those  denominations  who  practice  infant  baptism  can  easily 
make  the  contrary  appear.  As  it  is,  we  have  to  consider  the  objec- 
tion which  is  founded  on  the  want  of  a  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord."  But 
it  is  wholly  unnecessary  to  spend  time  in  refuting  this  objection,  as 
the  Baptists  themselves  do  not  believe  a  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord"  ne- 
cessary in  a  perfectly  parallel  case — we  mean  that  of  female  com- 
munion. The  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  and  the  ordinance  of 
baptism  rest  on  the  same  authority,  and  are  of  equal  dignity,  import- 
ance, and  obligation.  If,  then,  a  "Thus  saith  the  Lord"  be  necessary 
to  determine  the  proper  subjects  of  Christian  baptism,  the  same  ex- 
plicit warrant  is  equally  neccs^-ary  to  determine  the  proper  subjects 
of  the  Lord's  Supper.  This  conclusion  cannot  be  avoided.  Why, 
then,  do  the  Baptists  admit  women  to  the  Lord's  table  ?  Perhaps 
they  may  take  the  ground  that  theirs  is  not  the  Lord's  table,  but  an 
exclusive  feast,  Avhich  amounts  to  a  Baptist  table!  This,  indeed,  is  the 
only  score  on  which  we  can  excuse  them  for  administering  the  sacra- 
ment to  females,  seeing  that  there  is  no  explicit  warrant  for  such  an 
act.  Recollect,  we  take  the  bold  stand,  that  there  is  not  a  solitary 
passage  in  the  Bible  which  teaches  either  that  females  should  or  that 
they  did  communicate. 

2d.  But  it  is  objected,  that  none  are  to  be  baptized  until  they  be- 
lieve ;  and  that  infants  are  incapable  of  believing,  and  therefore  must 
not  be  baptized.     This  objection  proves  entirely  too  much,  for  the 


222  THE    GREAT    IRON    ^VIIKEL    EXAMINED. 

purpose  of  a  Baptist,  for  if  it  prove  that  infants  ought  not  to  be  bap- 
tized, it  equally  proves  that  none  who  die  in  infancy  can  be  saved. 
Hear  the  text  relied  upon  :  "  He  that  believeth  and  is  baptized  shall 
be  saved:  but  he  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned."  The  Baptists 
hold  that  faith  is  required  of  all  as  a  prerequisite  to  baptism:  that  in- 
fants are  incapable  of  faith;  and,  therefore,  they  ought  not  to  be 
baptized.  They  must  also  maintain  that  faith  is  required  of 
all  as  a  prerequisite  to  salvation ;  that  infants  are  incapable  of 
faith ;  and  therefore  infants  cannot  be  saved,  but  must  be 
damned.  For  faith  is  made  in  this  text  as  necessary  to  salva- 
tion as  to  baptism.  If,  therefore,  infants  are  excluded  from  bap- 
tism by  this  text,  they  are  by  it  equally  excluded  from  heaven.  This 
is  a  horrible  conclusion  indeed  !  And  yet  it  is  as  legitimately  drawn 
from  the  text,  as  that  infants  arc  not  to  be  baptized  because  they 
cannot  believe.  For  our  own  part,  we  believe  most  firmly  that  all 
who  die  in  infancy  are  saved.  And  if  they  are  saved  in  heaven,  their 
salvation,  though  of  grace,  must  be  without  faith.  But  the  Baptists, 
for  aught  we  know,  may  believe  that  infants  are  incapable  of  being 
made  holy  even  by  Divine  influence,  or  of  being  saved.  And  in  order 
consistently  to  reject  infants,  this  should  be  their  faith.  Because  if 
infants  may  be  saved  without  faith,  they  may  be  baptized  without 
faith,  for  any  thing  that  is  said  in  the  foregoing  text,  or  any  other 
passage  in  the  Bible,  to  the  contrary.  The  conclusion  of  the  whole 
matter,  then,  is,  that  the  argument  contained  in  the  objection  we 
have  been  considering  is  a  perfect  sophism. 

3d.  Having  given  the  sum  of  the  arguments  of  the  Baptists  against 
infant  baptism :  having  shown,  too,  that  they  do  not  disprove  it,  we 
would,  in  this  connection,  attend  to  the  arguments  on  the  other  side 
of  this  question,  but  for  having  anticipated  them  in  the  preceding 
pages.  Let  the  reader  turn  to  page  147,  where  we  have  considered 
the  covenant  entered  into  with  Abraham,  the  subject  of  circumcision, 
etc.,  and  it  will  be  there  seen  that  we  have  shown  most  conclusively 
that  it  is  scriptural  and  right  to  baptize  infants.  And  for  further 
scriptural  authority  for  baptizing  infants,  as  well  as  the  fathers 
favoring  the  baptism  of  infants,  we  refer  the  reader  to  two  chapters 
of  this  work,  commencing  the  first  on  page  42,  and  the  other  on 
page  46. 

4th  A  few  brief  remarks  just  here,  touching  the  relation  which 
baptized  infants  sustain  to  those  Churches  within  whose  pales  they 
receive  baptism,  and  we  have  done  with  this  bi-anch  of  the  subject.  In 
the  first  part  of  this  work  we  took  occasion  to  state  that  "Elder 
Gate,"  of  the  Baptist  Church,  at  a  protracted  meeting  in  this  town, 
in  December  last,  gave  as  one  reason  why  his  denomination  would 
not  commune  with  certain  other  denominations,  that  they  "received 
infants  into  their  Churches  and  made  them  intellectual  members."  We 
then  rose  up,  and  on  behalf  of  the  Methodists  and  Presbyterians 
denied  the  truth  of  what  the  gentleman  had  said,  provided  he  alluded 
to  either  or  both  of  these  denominations.  The  result  was,  that  he 
denied  having  any  allusion  to  either,  although  every  candid  man  in 


THE    GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  22o 

the  congregation  believed  he  alluded  to  them,  and  to  no  other  people. 
The  substance  of  what  we  then  said  is  herewith  repeated : 

Baptism,  administered  by  a  proper  person,  and  in  the  name  of  the 
holy  Trinity,  introduces  a  person  into  the  catholic  Church  of  Christ. 
But  baptism  alone  does  not  constitute  him  a  member  of  any  particu- 
lar Church.  To  become  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Church,  or  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church,  something  more  is  required  besides  being 
baptized.  Therefore,  when  an  infant  is  baptized  he  is  introduced  by 
baptism  into  the  Church  of  Christ — he  is  not  thereby  constituted  a 
member  of  any  particular  bi-anch  of  Christ's  Church ;  and  if  the 
baptism  be  performed  by  a  Methodist  or  Presbyterian  minister,  he 
does  not  baptize  him  by  virtue  of  his  being  a  Methodist  or  Presby- 
terian minister,  but  by  virtue  of  his  office  as  a  minister  of  Christ. 


224       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

Elder  Graves's  position,  no  baptism  without  going  into  the  wator 
— Criticism  on  the  word  hapiizo — Greek  particles  considered — Figu- 
rative language  considered — The  scriptural  argument  for  immersion 
— The  river  Jordan  a  bold  and  dashing  stream — Testimony  of  Stevens 
and  Brown — Immersion  utterly  impracticable  in  such  a  stream ! 

Elder  Graves  quotes  Mr.  Wesley's  approval  of  the 
Catechism  of  the  Church  of  England,  explaining  the  mean- 
ing of  the  sacrament  of  Baptism,  and  then  adds,  on  page  437 : 

All  this  is  sound  doctrine.  I  most  heartily  accept  of  this  definition 
of  the  sacrament  of  baptism,  even  to  its  action;  for  it  evidently  teaches 
that  the  subject  must  be  put  into  the  water.  It  reads:  "Water, 
wherein  the  person  is  to  be  baptized."  But  if  this  definition  be  cor- 
rect, is  the  baptism  of  an  infant  a  sacrament? — and  if  not,  is  it  baptism 
at  all,  in  any  sense? 

I  make  the  above  extract  my  text,  and  the  foundation  for 
such  criticisms  on  the  word  haptizo,  and  of  Greek  particles j 
as  may  come  up  in  this  chapter.  And  here,  again,  I  fall  back 
upon  my  arguments  of  1842,  as  applicable  to  the  present  con- 
troversy, and  fair  and  legitimate  answers  to  all  Mr.  Graves  has 
said  upon  the  subject  of  baptism  : 

Much  that  categorically  belongs  to  this  chapter  will  hereafter  be 
brought  forward  in  the  covirse  of  the  general  argument  on  the  mode 
of  baptism.  This  will  become  necessary  to  the  complete  development 
of  that  subject,  and  we  shall  not  anticipate  our  remarks  and  argu- 
ments in  this  place.  As  derivative  words  branch  off  from  their  roots, 
they  lose  much  of  their  primitive  force,  and  assume  new  shades  of 
meaning.  Hence,  whenever  we  would  attain  an  accurate  knowledge 
of  the  meaning  of  derivative  words,  we  trace  their  ^'pedigree;''  and, 
as  we  follow  them  back  to  the  parent  word,  we  find  their  sense  more 
restricted  and  definite.     It  is  lawful,  therefore,  to  presume,  antece- 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  225 

dently  to  all  investigation,  that,  in  the  case  under  consideration,  bap- 
tizo  may  lose  some  of  the  force  and  restrictedness  of  meaning  that 
belongs  to  its  primitive  bapto. 

AVe  are  now  entering  upon  an  important  point  of  this  controversy 
— a  point  upon  which  the  whole  must  hang;  and,  therefore,  we  beg 
the  reader's  patient  attention  to  a  candid  consideration  of  what  we  are 
about  to  say.  Every  thing  depends  upon  correct  and  intelligent  views 
of  the  subject  now  under  consideration;  and  we  need  scarcely 
advertise  the  reader  that,  if  he  start  with  wrong  notions  or  form 
wrong  premises,  he  never  can  expect  to  arrive  at  a  safe  conclusion. 
Many — from  mistaken  notions  of  the  proper  point  of  inquiry  here, 
and  of  the  proper  field  of  argumentation — have  undertaken  to  show 
•what  is  the  primary  meaning  of  the  original  word,  and  have  gone  to 
the  classic  Greek  for  arguments  and  illustrations  in  support  of  their 
views.  From  these  sources  they  have  argued  the  point,  setting  forth 
the  New  Testament  meaning  of  the  word,  and  its  proper  use  in  a  reli- 
gious sense.  But  they  might  as  well  have  applied  to  Homer  and 
Aristotle  to  sustain  and  uphold  the  doctrines  of  the  great  apostle  to 
the  Gentiles. 

The  real  issue,  and  the  only  question  here  to  be  settled,  is ;  What 
is  the  meaning  of  the  term  baptizo,  in  the  New  Testament,  ivhen  used  in  a 
religious,  or  ritual  sense?  The  proper  answer  to  this  anxious  interro- 
gatory must  for  ever  put  this  controversy  at  rest  with  candid  and 
intelligent  minds.  Scripture  usage  must  be  the  criterion  for  judging 
of  Scripture  terms. 

Before  we  proceed  further,  then,  we  must  be  permitted  to  apprise 
the  reader  of  the  difference  between  classic  Greek  on  the  one  hand, 
and  Hebraistic  Greek  on  the  other.  Classic  Greek  is  the  writings  of 
those  Greek  authors  who  were  educated  in  the  philosophy  and  doc- 
trines of  heathenism ;  and  Hebraistic  Greek  is  to  be  found  in  those 
books  written  by  Je  5vs  who  had  been  educated  in  the  doctrines  of  the 
Bible:  though  they  spoke  in  the  Greek  language,  yet  they  thought  as 
Jews  or  Christians.  Homer  and  Aristotle  would  naturally  express 
only  the  ideas  of  heathens,  in  Greek  rvords;  but  the  apostles,  or  St. 
John  and  St.  Paul,  when  called  upon  to  write  in  that  language,  would 
as  naturally  express  in  Greek  the  ideas  peculiar  to  Jews  converted  to 
Christianity.  Hebraistic  Greek  is,  therefore,  nothing  more  nor  less 
than  Hebrew  ideas  expressed  in  Greek  tcords.  And  where  converted 
Hebrews  have  written  the  history  and  doctrines  of  Christ  in  the  Greek 
language,  it  is  evident  that  their  words  have  not,  at  all  times,  been 
used  in  strict  accordance  with  the  classic  Greek,  as  defined  by  us  in 
the  preceding  remarks.  Not  only  so,  but  many  Greek  words  have 
been  entirely  changed  in  their  meaning  by  being  transformed  from  a 
native  Greek  to  a  Hebrew,  and  then  to  a  Christian.  Indeed,  the 
doctrines  of  Christianity  could  never  have  been  expressed  in  Greek, 
as  they  have  been,  ivithout  altering  the  meaning  of  many  words.  The 
reason  of  this  is  obvious.  The  Greeks  never  had  any  conception  of 
many  of  the  doctrines  of  Christianity,  and,  consequently,  they  had 
no  words  in.  their  language  primarily  adapted  to  express  them,  pliant 
10* 


226  THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

as  was  their  language.  These  statements  will  not  be  denied  by  any 
man,  unless  his  ignorance  and  party  spirit  outweigh  all  appreciation 
of  truth  and  justice,  as  is  unfortunately  the  case  with  too  many  men 
in  the  Baptist  Church,  called  preachers. 

Furthermore,  we  wish  to  premise  that  whatever  the  meaning  of 
haplizo  may  be,  when  used  in  a  ritual  sense  in  the  New  Testament,  in 
any  one  place,  it  must  be  uniform  in  its  meaning  throughout,  in  all 
similar  connections.  If  it  describe  an  external  act,  or  the  manner  of 
performing  an  external  rite,  in  one  place,  then  also  must  it  have  the 
same  restricted  sense  in  all  other  places.  But  if  it  have  a  generic. 
sense,  (comprehending  a  genus,)  if  it  signify  the  ejfect  of  some  out- 
ward mode  of  using  water,  as,  for  instance,  purify  or  cleanse,  then 
also  must  it  be  uniform  in  this  sense,  in  all  similar  places.  If  it  mean 
to  sprinkle,  it  cannot  mean  to  immerse,  and  vice  versd.  And  if  it  mean 
either  sprinkle  or  immerse,  pour  or  plunge,  it  cannot  mean  purify, 
and  vice  versa. 

Baptism,  to  proceed,  is  a  word  whose  meaning,  or  rather  usage  in 
the  sacred  writings,  has  given  rise  to  a  vast  amount  of  disputation. 
The  word  baptism  is  derived  from  the  Greek  words  baptisma  and  hap- 
tizo,  and  more  remotely  from  bapto,  and  properly  signifies  a  washing, 
whether  the  substance  washed  be  immersed  in  the  liquid,  or  the  liquid 
be  applied  to  the  substance  by  running,  pouring,  rubbing,  dropping, 
or  sprinkling.  So  there  were  "divers  washings"  or  baptisms  enjoined 
under  the  former  dispensation,  (Heb.  ix.  10,)  some  of  which  were 
performed  by  immersion,  others  by  bathing,  but  more  by  affusion. 
The  apostle  having  there  mentioned  these  "divers  baptisms,''^  goes  on, 
in  the  following  verses  of  the  same  chapter,  to  speak  expressly  of 
"divers  sprinklings,"  which  shows  satisfactorily  that  they  were 
included. 

This,  then,  is  the  primary  meaning  of  the  terms  baptisma  and  bap- 
tizo,  as  used  in  the  wide  range  of  classic  and  Hebrew  Greek ;  nor  will 
any  man,  not  grossly  ignorant  and  uninformed,  dispute  the  correct- 
ness of  our  views.  But  we  are  to  show,  not  what  are  the  "divers" 
meanings  of  these  terms,  in  the  wide  range  alluded  to,  nor  yet  what 
is  their  general  use  in  Scripture,  but  what  is  their  meaning  when  used 
in  a  ritual  sense  in  the  New  Testament;  and  we  take  the  ground  that 
they  mean,  in  all  such  connections,  to  purify  or  cleanse,  without  any 
allusion  whatever  to  the  mode  of  cleansing. 

But  suppose  we  understand  the  Greek  word  baptize  as  the  Baptists 
do,  in  the  sense  of  immerse,  and  take  the  ground  that  the  Saviour 
used  it  thus,  and  that,  therefore,  the  command  to  baptize  is  a  com- 
mand to  immerse.  This  is  the  point  contended  for  by  the  regular 
Baptists.  But  is  this  satisfactory  ?  Is  it  definite  ?  Is  it  at  all  intel- 
ligible? But  suppose  the  Saviour  had  commanded  the  disciples  sim- 
ply to  immerse,  that  is,  to  put  the  converts  under  water:  would  the 
command  have  had  any  definite  meaning  whatever?  As  immersion  is 
performed  for  various  purposes,  why  should  they  immerse  the  converts? 
The  word  immerse  would  never  give  a  clue  to  the  solution  of  thia 
question.      History  might  determine  it,  but  philology  never  could. 


THE    GREAT    IRON    WUEEL    EXAMINED.  227 

But  suppose  we  understand  the  -word  baptizg  iu  the  sense  of  purify 
and  that  our  Saviour  said  to  the  disciples:  "Go  teach  all  nations, 
PURIFYING  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the 
Holy  Ghost."  This  would  make  the  sense  complete,  and  baptizo 
would  then  denote  the  grand  iktkntion,  or  ceremonial  use  of  water. 
This  is,  indeed,  so  plain  a  case,  that  we  cannot  think  it  will  be  misun- 
derstood by  any,  nor  need  we  dwell  longer  thereon.  Thus,  then,  wc 
rest  the  philological  argument  from  the  import  of  the  word  baptizo. 
Our  aim  has  been  to  simplify  the  subject,  so  as  to  bring  it  within  the 
comprehension  of  all  classes  of  readers.  And  if  the  reader  has 
attended  to  what  we  have  said,  he,  we  apprehend,  will  agree  with  us 
that  BAPTIZO,  when  used  in  connection  with  the  subject  of  Christian 
baptism,  in  the  New  Testament,  may  be  translated  by  purify,  conse- 
crate, or  even  wash;  that  it  is  a  generic  term,  in  all  such  instances, 
signifying  the  effect  of  the  ceremonial  use  of  water,  without  any  allu- 
sion to  or  stress  put  upon  the  mode. 

GREEK  PARTICLES  CONSIDERED. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  the  reader  has  found  nothing  to  justify 
the  vain-confidence  with  which  Baptists  have  asserted  that  baptizo 
necessarily  signifies  to  immerse;  but  from  the  evidence  arising  from 
the  word  itself,  it  has  been  clearly  shown,  we  think,  that  its  true 
import  is  against  this  Baptist  hypothesis.  In  this  chapter  wo  propose 
briefly  to  notice  the  Greek  prepositions  employed  in  connection  with 
the  history  of  baptism,  in  the  New  Testament.  They  are — in,  at,  by, 
from,  etc.,  etc.  The  frequent  interchange  of  these  particles,  the  va- 
rious senses  in  which  they  are  used,  together  with  the  rareness  of 
their  occurrence  in  connection  with  water  baptism,  all  and  singular 
concur  to  render  their  testimony  dubious  to  the  cause  of  exclusive 
immersionists ;  so  that  we  should  deem  it  altogether  unworthy  of  any 
formal  notice,  had  it  not  assumed  an  importance  in  the  estimation  of 
some  who,  from  ignorance  or  want  of  investigation,  seem  not  to  have 
appreciated  its  real  merits.  It  is  not,  however,  our  purpose  to  treat 
of  the  prepositions  at  large;  and,  in  order  to  the  greater  perspicuity, 
we  shall  treat  them  separately. 

1st.  In. — The  first  sense  we  shall  notice  as  belonging  to  this  prepo- 
sition, where  it  stands  connected  with  baptism,  renders  it  synonymous 
with  our  English  preposition  at.  Thus  —  as  our  common  English 
version  of  the  Bible  has  it — the  people  were  baptized  by  John  "m 
Jordan."  It  is  well  known  that  the  Baptists  claim  this  passage  in 
their  favor,  alleging  that  if  John  stood  in  the  waters  of  Jordan  when 
he  baptized,  it  could  only  have  been  for  the  purpose  of  immersion. 
But  in  this  they  assume  the  very  point  to  be  proved,  and  assume  it, 
too,  against  prot)f.  If  John  stood  in  the  water — and  we  will  not  say 
that  he  did  not — still,  it  is  wholly  gratuitous  to  assert  that,  therefore, 
he  immersed.  As  well  might  we  maintain  that  because  it  is  said  a 
man  is  in  America,  or  in  Tennessee,  the  preposition  certainly  imports 
that  he  is  under  the  soil  of  America,  or  under  the  soU  of  Tennessee.     In 


228  THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

translating  in  at,  as  above,  we  do  not  intend  to  deny  that  John  ever 
stood  in  Jordan,  when  he  baptized.  We  allow  that  he  may  sometimes 
have  stood  in  the  water,  sometimes  out  of  the  water,  and  sometimes 
al  the  water's  brink,  when  he  performed  the  ceremony.  Our  only 
object  is  to  show — which  is  the  fact — that  the  force  of  the  preposition 
has  nothing  to  do  with  the  jnode  of  baptism.  This  will  appear  still 
more  evident  from  the  following  facts:  Mark  says  John  baptized  "m 
the  desert;''^  Luke  says  he  came  preaching  repentance,  and  baptizing 
in  all  the  ^^ country  round  about  Jordan;"  while  John  himself  de- 
clared that  he  preached  and  baptized  "beyond  Jordan  m  Bethabara," 
and  also  "m  Enon."  What,  then,  becomes  of  the  force  of  the  prepo- 
sition in?  What  connection  has  it  with  the  doctrine  of  immersion? 
Now  the  whole  story  is,  when  told,  that  the  evangelists  merely  in- 
tended to  say  that  John  stood  at,  or  in  the  vicinity  of  Jordan,  Betha- 
bara, Enon,  etc.,  when  he  baptized.  Again:  "On  whom  the  tower 
AT  (instead  of  in)  Siloam  fell."  And  Matthew  says:  "Thou  shalt 
love  the  Lord  toith  all  thy  heart" — not  in  all  thy  heart!  Once  more: 
"  I  indeed  baptize  with  water" — not  in  water.  In  the  book  of  Acts 
it  is  said:  "But  ye  sho.ll  be  baptized  by  the  Holy  Ghost,"  and  again, 
"WITH  the  Holy  Ghost."  And  Luke  says:  "The  Holy  Ghost  sat 
UPON  the  apostles;"  although  the  Baptists  would  have  us  believe  that 
the  apostles  were  immersed  in  the  Holy  Ghost! 

2d.  Into,  out  of,  from. — We  have  placed  these  prepositions  together, 
because  it  will  not  be  convenient  to  treat  of  them  separately.  It  is 
said  in  Mark  i.  9:  "Jesus  was  baptized  by  John  into  the  Jordan,"  as 
it  is  properly  rendered,  though  the  same  thing  is  not  said  anywhere 
else  in  the  New  Testament.  Now  this  is  a  plain  case  of  the  inter- 
change of  Greek  particles,  where  into  is  put  for  in  or  at.  See  Matt, 
iii.  6,  and  Mark  i.  5,  where  the  preposition  in  is  used,  not  with  refer- 
ence to  the  mode,  but  to  the  means  of  baptism.  The  second  and  last 
place  where  into  is  used  in  connection  with  baptism,  in  a  way  to  affect 
the  question  under  examination,  is  found  in  Acts  viii.  38:  "And  they 
went  down  both  into  the  water,  both  Philip  and  the  eunuch,"  etc. 
But  wherein  lies  the  stress  of  this  passage  favoring  immersion  ?  Cer- 
tainly not  in  the  circumstance  of  their  going  ^^into  the  water,"  for 
that  is  aifirmed  of  "  6o/A"  of  them.  Will  the  Baptists  contend  that 
Philip  was  baptized  likewise  ?  If  he  was,  xvho  baptized  him  ?  Did 
he  do  it  himself,  or  did  the  eunuch  baptize  him,  after  the  fashion  that 
Williams  did  Holliman  "and  the  other  ten?"  In  Acts  xxvi.  13,  it 
is  said,  speaking  of  Saul  and  his  company,  "And  when  we  were  all 
fallen  to  the  earth,"  not  into  the  earth.  In  John  xi.  38,  it  is  said  of 
the  tomb  of  Lazarus,  "Jesus  therefore  cometh  to  the  tomb,"  not  into 
the  tomb.  Again:  "Then  cometh  Simon  Peter,  following  him,  and 
went  into  the  sepulchre."  As  to  the  preposition  into,  it  oftentimes 
stands  in  contrast  with  from,  instead  of  out  of.  Instance  the  following 
passages  :  '■'■from  city  to  city" — '■'■from  .Jerusalem  to  Jericho" — "the 
way  that  goeth  down  from  Jerusalem  to  Gaza,"  etc. 

We  have  already  observed  that  both  Matthew  and  Mark  use  from 
instead  of  out  of^  when  they  describe  the  act  of  our  Saviour  in  leav- 


THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  229 

iug  the  water  after  baptism.     They  simply  say  he  came  from  the 
water,  and  uot  out  of  the  water. 

In  concluding  our  remarks  under  this  head,  we  have  a  passing  re- 
mark or  so  to  make  touching  the  hodij  of  water  in  which  the  eunuch 
was  baptized.  The  account  says,  "They  came  to  some  water^  But 
what  is  some  water?  How  much  is  some?  The  pronoun  [some,  any) 
sometimes  has  a  diminutive  sense — it  sometimes  means  a  little;  and 
who  will  say  this  is  not  its  meaning  here  ?  The  eunuch  exclaimed 
with  evident  astonishment  when  he  discovered  the  water.  Behold 
water!  He  does  not  say,  behold  the  quantity,  but  was  surprised  to 
find  any  water  in  such  a  place.  Indeed,  he  knew  the  country,  and 
knew  it  was  in  that  vicinity — in  the  Valley  of  Gerar,  where,  as  every 
man  of  information  knows,  the  city  of  Gaza  stood — where  Abraham 
and  Isaac  were  obliged  to  dig  wells  to  procure  water  for  their  flocks. 
It  was  here,  too,  that  "the  herdmen  of  Gerar  did  strive  with  Isaac's 
herdmen,  saying.  The  water  is  ours."  Would  different  parties  have 
contended  fiercely  for  water,  if  it  had  been  abundant  as  the  Baptists 
say  it  was  in  the  valley  ?  Would  Abraham  and  Isaac  have  incurred 
the  expense  and  delay  of  digging  wells,  if  there  had  been  rivers  or 
creeks  in  the  vicinity  large  enough  to  immerse  a  man  in,  after  the 
manner  of  the  Baptists  ?  Certainly  not.  Whence,  then,  has  arisen 
all  this  fancied  abundance  of  water  sufficient  for  an  immersion,  where 
herdmen  would  quarrel  and  fight  for  a  "we/Z"  out  of  which  to  water 
their  flocks  ?  Reason  and  presumption  are  against  it,  else  might  it 
have  been  said ; 

But,  children,  j-ou  should  never  let 

Such  angry  passions  rise ; 
Your  clumsy  fists  were  never  mad© 

To  gouge  each  other's  eyes. 


FIGURATIVE  LANGUAGE  CONSIDERED. 

The  branch  of  the  general  argument  which  we  now  propose  to  no- 
tice very  briefly,  is  one  of  much  more  importance  than  may  be  sup- 
posed. Men  of  intelligence  and  candor  will  not  doubt  the  correctness 
of  this  position.  There  is  no  controversy  as  to  whether  baptism  be 
emblematical ;  nor  is  there  any  dispute,  to  our  ioiowledge,  in  regard  to 
the  fact  that  outward  baptism  is  an  emblem  of  inward  purity.  And 
all  agree,  except  perhaps  the  Baptists  and  Catholics,  that  baptism 
with  water  derives  its  entire  efficacy  from  its  emblematical  character, 
while  none  others  deny  that  it  also  signifies  purity  of  heart. 

If  we  scan  the  figurative  language  of  the  Bible,  we  shall  find  that 
two  distinct  ideas  are  comprehended  under  the  general  ceremonial 
use  of  water;  namely,  regeneration  and  purification  of  heart. 
The  one  is  founded  on  the  resuscitating,  and  the  other  on  the  purifyiny 
qualities  of  water.  These  facts,  then,  clearly  show  the  necessity  of 
divers  forms  of  administration  of  the  consecrating  element,  in  order  to 
create  the  foundation  and  similitude  on  which  the  very  notion  of  an 
emblem  is  founded.     On  this  point,  Dr.  Dick,  in  the  second  volume,. 


230  THE    GREAT    IRON    WllKETi,  TXAMIXED. 

and  at  the  377th  page  of  his  Theology,  beautifully  and  justly  re- 
marks:  "  It  is  by  no  means  probable  tliat  God  would  speak  of  his 
own  operations  in  o?ie  tcm/,  and  symbolically  represent  them  in  a  dif- 
ferent ivai/ :  that  he  should  promise  to  sjmnkle  or  pottr  out  his  Sjjirit 
vpon  us,  and,  to  confirm  this  promise,  would  command  us  to  be  plunged 
into  water!" 

It  now  only  remains  for  us  to  inquire  into  the  ancient  Jewish  im- 
port of  the  ceremonial  use  of  water.  The  whole  history  of  this  use 
of  water  among  the  Jews  speaks  but  one  language.  We  shall  content 
ourselves,  however,  with  a  few  passages,  and  leave  the  reader  to  ex- 
tend the  line  of  citations  ad  libitum,  and  so  on  ad  infinitum. 

In  the  Psalms,  we  hear  David  pray,  ''^Vash  me  thoroughly /t-otti 
mine  iniquity,  and  cleanse  me  from  my  sin."  Again:  "-Purge  me  with 
hyssop,  and  I  shall  be  clean  :  ivaih  me,  and  I  shall  be  winter  than 
snow." 

The  Prophet  Isaiah  says,  "Wash  you  and  make  you  clean:  put 
away  the  evil  of  your  doing."  Again  :  "  0  Jerusalem  !  zvash  thy  heart 
from  WICKEDNESS."  And  in  the  forty-fourth  chapter  of  Isaiah,  it  is 
observed,  "I  will  pour  water  upon  him  that  is  thirsty,  and  floods 
upon  the  dry  ground :  I  will  pour  my  Spirit  upon  thy  seed,  and  my 
blessing  upon  thine  offspi'ing." 

The  Prophet  Ezekiel  says,  "Then  will  I  sprinkle  clean  water 
upon  you,  and  ye  shall  be  clean  :  from  all  your  filthiuess  and  from 
all  your  idols  will  I  cleanse  you."  What  a  severe,  what  a  merited 
rebuke  is  here  given  to  those  Baptist  preachers  who  have  been  plung- 
ing men  and  women  in  Green's  muddy  and  stinking  mill-pond,  and  in 
the  mud  and  filth  of  the  Cherokee  creek,  south  of  this ! 

In  the  tenth  chapter  of  Hosea,  and  at  the  12th  verse,  the  command 
is  recorded,  "Seek  the  Lord  till  he  come  and  rain  righteousness  upon 
you."  And  in  the  fourteenth  chapter  of  the  same  book  it  is  said,  "I 
will  be  as  the  dew  unto  Israel."  In  the  seventy-second  Psalm  it  is 
said,  in  reference  to  Messiah,  "He  shall  come  down  like  rain  upon 
the  mown  grass." 

In  these  three  citations  the  inspired  writers  most  beautifully  repre- 
sent the  refreshing  influences  of  the  Spirit  by  a  metaphor  taken  from 
the  falling  of  dew  and  rain.  What  lively — what  beautiful  figures  ! 
How  expressive !  But  not  a  word  about  immersing  in  all  this.  No 
purifying — no  cleansing — no  washing — is  here  represented  by  a  com- 
mand to  plunge  ! ! 

The  conclusion,  then,  to  which  we  are  conducted  by  express  decla- 
rations of  holy  writ,  and  by  ancient  usage,  and  which  have  never 
been  either  contradicted  or  impaired,  is  that  the  practice  of  immers- 
ing persons  in  baptism  is  an  innovation  upon  the  established  and  an- 
cient meaning  of  the  emblematical  use  of  water.  This  innovation  we 
cannot  allow,  first,  because  there  is  no  necessary  demand  for  it ;  and, 
next,  because  it  alters  in  many  important  and  vital  respects  the  sense 
and  aspect  of  the  doctrines  and  allusions  of  the  New  Testament. 

We  cannot  close  this  chapter  more  appropriately  than  to  give  a 
paragraph  touching  these  points  from  Hibbard's  Christian  Baptism,  a 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  231 

work  inferior  to  none  we  have  seen  on  this  subject.  This  paragraph, 
moreover,  will  enable  the  reader  the  more  readily  to  appreciate  the 
entire  bearing  of  the  foregoing  remarks.  Hibbard  very  justly  re- 
marks : — 

If,  therefore,  according  to  the  general  analogy  of  Scripture,  water  be  used  cere- 
monially as  an  enihlem  of  the  purifying  and  regenerating  operations  of  the  Holy 
Spirit;  and  if  God  has  uniformlj'  spoken  of  the  latter  as  being  poured  out  upon 
men — as  falling  upon — as  sitting  upon  them,  etc.;  and  has  also  signified  it  symboli- 
cally, by  the  falling  of  dew — by  the  descent  of  rain — by  the  pouring  out  of  water — 
by  the  xprin/ding  of  water — by  Chrifst's  breathing  upon  Ids  disciples — by  the  '' laying 
on  of  hands;"  and  if  to  this  general  emblematical  sense  of  ceremonial  ablutions 
accord  the  particular  teachings  of  the  New  Testament  in  regard  to  Christian  bap- 
tism, it  follows  that,  by  the  sanction  of  all  Jewish  usage — by  the  analogy  of  water 
and  spiritual  baptism — and  by  the  common  law  of  interpretation  of  all  symbolical 
rites — the  water  of  baptism  should  be  applied  by  sprinkling  or  pouring. 


THE  RIVER  JORDAN. 

.lordan  is  the  largest  river  in  Palestine,  and  affords  more  water 
than  all  the  streams  of  the  Holy  Land  united  together.  This  cele- 
brated stream  is  formed  by  the  junction  of  two  rivulets,  the  Jor  and 
the  Dan,  from  which  it  takes  its  name.  It  rises  in  Mount  Libanus, 
and  runs  into  the  Dead  Sea. 

Editor  Howell  recently  quoted  Stevens's  Travels  in  Egypt,  Arabia 
Petrpea,  and  the  Holy  Land,  to  prove  that  this  river  afforded  sufficient 
(vater  for  John  to  have  immersed  Christ  in.  We  now  quote  an  item 
from  the  same  author,  dated  March  31,  1836,  to  prove  a  man  could 
not  be  immersed  in  Jordan  : — 

The  bank  of  the  river  Jordan  here  (where  Christ  was  baptized)  is  about  ten  or 
twelve  feet  high — a  clear  level  table  of  land,  covered  with  rich  grass,  and  large 
bushes  on  the  edge  overhanging  the  river.  Judging  by  the  eye,  tlie  river  is  here 
about  thirty  paces  broad;  t/ie  current  is  very  rapid,  and  the  pilgrim  in  bathing  is 
obliged  to  hold  on  bg  the  bushes  to  avoid  being  carried  away.  Immediately  below  this 
the  river  narrows  to  ten  paces.  It  is  (thence)  a  small,  broken,  and  muddy  stream, 
running  between  banks  of  barren  sand,  without  bloom  or  verdure. 

Now,  is  it  not  strange  that  Mr.  Howell  should  introduce  the  testi- 
mony of  Mr.  Stevens  to  prove  that  Jordan  was  so  bold  a  stream  that 
a  man  could  not  wade  into  it  without  being  carried  away  by  the  cur- 
rent, when  the  same  testimony  would  show  that  no  one  could  be  im- 
mersed in  it  for  the  very  same  reason?  Was  Christ  immersed  in  such 
a  stream  as  this?  Or  did  John  and  Christ  ^^  hold  on  hy  the  bushes  to 
avoid  being  carried  away  9^''  It  would  seem  so,  for  the  river,  just  at 
the  point  where  Chinst  was  baptized,  was  "very  rapid.^^  Wonder  how 
many  females  could  be  induced  to  encounter  "bold  Jordan"  with  a 
Baptist  preacher  who  acknowledges  himself  that  he  can't  su-im  !  What 
would  one  of  these  large,  fleshy,  overgrown  women  do,  with  her  seve- 
ral garments  on,  in  such  a  rapid  current  ?  Or,  forsooth,  what  would 
a  female  in  a  peculiar  fix  do  in  such  a  scrape  ? 

To  show  that  Mr.  Stevens  is  not  singular  in  his  description  of  the 


232  THE    GREAT    TRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED. 

Jordan,  we  give  the  followinp  very  brief  extract  from  Brown's  Ency- 
clopedia, page  700:  — 

The  current  [of  tho  Jordivn]  is  so  violent  that  a  Greek  servant,  belonging  to  th« 
author,  wlio  attempted  to  orosri  it,  though  strong,  active,  and  an  excellent  swimmer, 
found  the  undertaking  impracticable 

The  same  author  says,  page  701  : — 

The  rapidity  ami  depth  of  tho  Jordan  are  admitted  by  every  traveller,  although 
the  volume  of  water  seems  to  be  much  diminished  from  its  ancient  greatness. 

The  fact,  moreover,  of  there  being  no  fords  or  ferries  on  the  Jordan 
goes  to  establish  its  character  as  a  bold  and  dangerous  stream.  The 
regular  passages  over  the  Jordan  were  onlj  four,  as  we  are  taught  in 
Scripture. 

1st.  Jacob's  bridge,  near  to  the  Lake  Genesareth,  said  to  be  the 
place  where  Jacob  met  his  brother  Esau,  and  where  he  had  the  night's 
wrestle  with  an  angel. 

2d.  The  second  crossing-place  was  a  bridge  at  a  place  called  Cham- 
math,  at  the  issue  of  the  Jordan  from  the  Lake  of  Genesareth. 

3d.  There  was  a  ferry  at  Bethabara,  mention  of  which  is  made  in 
2d  Samuel.     Here  there  was  an  eddy,  but  tlie  water  was  deep. 

4th,  Last  of  all,  there  was  a  bridge  at  Bethshan,  or  Scythopolis,  a 
city  belonging  to  the  half-tribe  of  Manasseh,  on  the  west  bank  of 
Jordan,  This  is  the  city  on  the  wall  of  which  the  Philistines  hung 
the  body  of  Saul,  aft^^r  the  celebrated  battle  of  Mount  Gilboa. 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  233 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

No  serving  of  God  without  immersion,  according  to  Elder  Graves — 
None  but  immersed  believers  can  constitute  a  Church — Eight  scrip- 
tural examples  of  Christian  baptism — Inhabitants  of  the  Polar 
regions  of  the  earth  excluded  from  the  service  of  God,  if  immersion 
be  the  true  and  only  mode  of  baptism — Indecent  personal  exhibi- 
tion, growing  out  of  immersion — Summary  of  the  whole. 

On  page  547,  under  the  head  of  "  Declaration  of  Rights/' 
our  author  says : 

We  hold  it  to  be  the  personal  and  bounden  duty  of  every  account- 
able person, 

To  acknowledge  and  serve  God — believe  in  and  obey  Jesus  Christ 
— to  be  immersed  upon  a  profession  of  that  faith — to  unite  with  a 
Christian  Church — to  participate  in  the  Lord's  Supper — and  to  labor 
for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  extension  of  the  Redeemer's  kingdom ;  etc. 

On  the  same  page,  under  the  head  "Proofs/'  intended  to 
sustain  his  position  as  above  given,  he  quotes  the  following 
passage,  which  I  suppose  he  takes  from  the  JVew  Baptist 
Version  of  the  Scriptures,  as  it  is  not  to  be  found  in  our  pre- 
sent authorized  English  version  of  the  Bible  : 

Go  ye,  therefore,  disciple  all  nations,  immersing  them  in  the  name 
of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  teaching  them 
to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you. 

And  on  page  552,  where  his  "Wheel"  is  about  to  call  a 
halt,  he  gives  the  constitution  of  a  true  Church.  The  first 
section  of  the  first  article  is  in  these  words : 

Section  1. — A  Church  of  Christ  is  a  company  of  believers  im- 
mersed upon  a  profession  of  an  evangelical  faith,  voluntarily  asso- 


234  THE    GREAT    lKO\    UUKKl.    EXAMINED. 

ciated,  on  terms  of  perfect  equality,  iu  a  covenant  or  agreement, 
implied  or  expressed,  to  receive  the  New  Testament  as  their  only  rule 
of  faith  and  practice,  and  to  be  governed  by  its  teachings  iu  all  things. 

Making  these  three  extracts  the  foundatiou  of  my  remarks, 
I  shall  conclude  my  argument  upon  baptism  in  this  chapter. 
We  quote  again  from  our  little  book  : — 

EXAMPLES  OF  CHRISTIAN  BAPTISM. 

At  this  stage  of  the  argument,  it  is  proper  to  inquire  into  the  prac- 
tice of  the  early  Christians,  with  a  view  to  determine  the  specific 
bearing  of  their  example  on  the  question  in  dispute.  We  therefore 
proceed,  and  without  further  preliminary,  to  examine  the  Christian 
baptisms  recorded  in  the  New  Testament,  and  especially  those  cases 
alleged  to  have  been  cases  of  immersion. 

1.  The  first  case  we  design  to  notice,  is  the  baptism  of  three  thou- 
sand persons  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  as  set  forth  in  the  2d  chapter 
of  Acts:  "Then  they  that  gladly  received  his  word  were  baptized, 
and  the  same  day  were  added  unto  them  about  three  thousand  souls." 
These  were  all  added  to  the  Church  on  the  day  of  Pentecost ;  but  the 
mode  by  which  they  were  baptized  is  not  pointed  out.  The  Baptists 
say  it  was  by  immersion.  But  any  one  acquainted  with  the  circum- 
stances of  this  occasion,  will  readily  see  that  the  weight  of  evidence 
is  against  the  idea  of  immersion.  Peter  began  to  preach  about  the 
third  hour  of  the  day,  i.  e.,  about  nine  o'clock  A.  M.  Judging  from 
the  nature  of  the  occasion,  and  from  the  drift  of  his  discourse,  as 
reported  by  Luke,  he  could  not  have  delivered  his  sermon  in  less  than 
an  hour.  Luke  says — "With  man;/  other  words  Peter  testified  and 
exhorted,"  etc.  Sermon  being  ended,  the  candidates  for  baptism  must 
be  selected  from  the  vast  multitude,  and  questioned  as  to  their  "ex- 
perience of  grace."  If  they  were  immersed,  they  must  have  been 
provided  with  a  change  of  raiment ;  but  how  could  they  have  been 
prepared  to  change  clothes  ?  They  came  together,  at  first,  a  promis- 
cuous multitude,  without  any  expectation  of  Christian  baptism,  or  of 
their  conversion.  These  and  many  other  things  considered,  we  have 
no  idea  that  the  apostles  proceeded  to  baptize  their  converts  before 
one  o'clock.  The  Jewish  day  closed  at  six  P.  M.,  and  Luke  says  they 
were  baptized  and  added  to  the  church  the  "same  day."  This 
granted,  they  had  but  five  hours  left  in  which  to  baptize  three  thou- 
sand persons.  Divide  these  among  twelve  apostles,  even  supposing 
them  to  have  all  assisted,  and  each  man  had  an  average  of  250;  which 
would  be,  for  each  man,  50  persons  per  hour,  or  5  persons  in  every 
n  minutes.  This,  we  need  not  say,  would  have  been  impossible.  The 
i);iptists  allege  that  the  seventy  disciples  aided  on  the  occasion.  This 
allegation  has  no  foundation  either  in  the  text  or  chapter  in  which 
this  event  is  recorded.  Besides,  there  is  no  proof  that  the  seventy 
were  commissioned  to  baptize.  Luke  is  so  explicit  as  to  say — "But 
Peter  standing  up  with  the  eleven,"  etc.  Why  did  not  Luke  say — 
"But  Peter  standing  up  with  the  sevenfy,"  etc.  ? 


THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED.  235 

But  on  this  occasion,  the  apostles  had  no  place  for  the  immersion  of 
such  a  multitude.  The  brook  Kedron,  which  ran  along  the  east  side  of 
the  city,  was  at  its  maximum  but  a  turbid  stream — for  ever  di-y  in  the 
hot  season,  and  it  was  now  about  June ;  so  that,  if  it  were  not  dry, 
its  waters  must  have  been  failing  fast.  Besides,  soon  after  this  stream 
issued  from  its  source,  it  received  from  a  common-sewer  all  the  blood 
and  ordure  of  the  daily  sacrifices,  and  the  common  filth,  both  of  the 
temple  and  the  northern  section  of  the  city.  If  one  of  the  apostles 
had  taken  a  wife  or  daughter  of  ours,  and  plunged  her  into  this  filthy 
brook,  he  would  not  have  immersed  another  female  soon  again. 

As  to  public  pools,  the  Scriptures  give  an  account  of  but  tioo,  Beth- 
saida  and  Siloam.  The  latter  was  one  mile  from  where  the  great 
meeting  was  on  the  day  of  Pentecost.  Do  the  Scriptures  give  any 
account  of  the  marching  of  these  three  thousand  persons,  and  as 
many  spectators,  to  this  pool  ?  But  if  they  had  gone  there,  could 
three  thousand  persons  have  been  immersed  in  one  pool,  between  the 
hours  of  one  and  six  ?  Are  there  no  difficulties  attending  this  Baptist 
hypothesis?  Is  it  not  evident  ihoX pouring  or  sprinkling  was  the  mode 
on  the  memorable  occasion  we  have  been  considering?  Let  the  candid 
reader  answer. 

2.  The  second  example  of  baptism  mentioned  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment is  that  of  the  eunuch,  by  Philip.  Here,  says  the  Baptist  parti- 
san, they  both  went  down  into  the  xvater,  and  they  both  came  up  out  of 
the  water,  and  this  certainly  makes  out  a  case  of  immersion.  There 
is  nothing  in  the  text  from  which  immersion  can  be  inferred,  but  the 
circumstance  of  their  going  dotvn  into  the  water,  etc.  If,  then,  this 
circumstance  prove  the  immersion  of  either,  it  will  prove  the  immer- 
sion of  both,  for  it  existed  alike  with  respect  to  both.  Let  us  throw 
the  argument  into  a  syllogistical  form,  and  see  what  it  proves.  Going 
down  into  the  water  necessarily  implies  immersion.  Philip  and  the 
eunuch  both  went  down  into  the  water.  Therefore,  of  necessity, 
they  were  both  immersed.  But  many  persons  go  down  into  the  water, 
and  come  up  out  of  it,  without  being  immersed.  Of  this  we  are 
absolutely  certain,  both  from  our  own  experience  and  daily  observa- 
tion. But  as  this  question  is  examined  on  former  pages  of  this  work, 
we  will  add  nothing  more  in  this  place. 

3.  The  third  example  of  baptism  recorded  in  the  New  Testament, 
is  that  of  the  Apostle  Paul  at  Damascus.  And  we  unhesitatingly 
aiSrm  that  there  is  nothing  in  this  text  which,  either  directly  or  indi- 
rectly, justifies  the  conclusion  that  Paul  was  immersed.  Hear  what 
the  evangelist  says.  Acts  ix.  17,  18:  "And  Ananias  went  his  way 
and  entered  into  the  house,  and  putting  his  hands  upon  him,  said. 
Brother  Saul,  the  Lord,  even  Jesus,  who  appeared  unto  thee  in  the 
way  as  thou  camest,  hath  sent  me  that  thou  mightest  receive  thy 
sight,  and  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  immediately  there  fell 
from  his  eyes,  as  it  had  been  scales ;  and  he  received  sight  forthwith, 
and  arose,  and  was  baptized."  Was  Paul  immersed?  It  is  not  so 
written  in  this  text.  It  is  not  so  much  as  hinted  at  in  this  text.  It  is 
not  in  the  book  of  God.  It  is  a  mere  Baptist  conjecture  which  no 
man  is  bound  to  believe,  because  no  man  can  prove  it  true.     Nay, 


286  THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED. 

more  —  there  is  every  reason  a  man  of  sense  should  require  foi 
believing  the  very  reverse.  Paul  had  been  three  days  and  nights  as 
blind  as  a  bat,  greatly  enfeebled  by  fa^^ting  and  anguish  of  spirit; 
and  from  the  fact  of  his  rising  up  to  be  baptized  Avhen  Ananias  came 
to  him,  it  appears  that  he  was  either  sitting  or  lying  down — certainly 
in  a  bad  condition  to  be  led  off  and  jjlunged  into  some  pool  or  pond, 
for  there  Was  no  river  or  creek  suitable  in  the  neighborhood.  The 
text  does  not  warrant  the  conclusion  that  Paul  left  the  house  or  room 
in  which  Ananias  found  him  ;  and  inasmuch  as  he  received  meat  and 
was  strengthened,  immediately  after  his  baptism,  the  presumption 
is  that  he  did  not. 

4.  The  fourth  example  of  baptism  afforded  us  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, is  that  of  Cornelius  and  his  friends  at  Cesarea.  See  Acts  x. 
48:  "Then  answered  Peter,  Can  any  man  forbid  water,  that  these 
should  not  be  baptized  who  have  received  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  well  as 
we  ?  And  he  commanded  them  to  be  baptized  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord  Jesus." 

Does  any  part  of  this  text  say  that  Cornelius  and  his  friends  were 
immersed  in  water  ?  A  person  who  had  never  heard  tell  of  the  prac- 
tice of  plunging,  might  read  this  narrative  a  hundred  times  over, 
and  he  would  never  think  of  a  baptism  by  immersion :  nay,  there  is 
not  a  word  or  an  allusion,  in  the  text,  from  which  such  an  idea  could 
originate;  but  there  are  several  indications  of  baptism  by  jsowrm^  and 
sprinkling. 

Look  at  the  mode  of  Peter's  question,  '^'^toho  shall  forbid  water  "  etc. 
As  if  he  had  said,  in  the  preceding  verse,  Christ  ha,^  poured  upon  them 
the  promised  baptismal  purifying  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Who  shall 
forbid  us  to  jjour  on  them  the  baptismal  water  which  represents  it? 
These  considerations  prove  to  our  mind  ihdii  pouring,  and  not  immeT' 
sion,  was  the  mode  of  baptism  on  this  occasion. 

5.  The  fifth  example  of  baptism  that  we  meet  with  in  the  New 
Testament,  is  that  of  Lydia  and  her  household.    See  Acts  xvi.  13-15 : 

And  on  the  Sabbath,  we  went  out  of  the  city,  by  a  river  side,  where  prayer  waa 
wont  to  be  made;  and  we  sat  down,  and  spake  unto  the  Avomen  which  resorted 
thither.  And  a  certain  woman  named  Lydia,  a  seller  of  purple,  of  the  city  of  Thy- 
atira,  which  worshipped  God,  heard  us:  whose  heart  the  Lord  opened,  that  she 
attended  unto  the  things  which  were  spoken  of  Paul.  And  when  she  was  baptiecd, 
and  her  household,  she  besought  us,  saying,  If  ye  have  judged  me  to  be  faithful  to 
the  Lord,  come  into  my  house,  and  abide  tliere.    And  she  constrained  us. 

Now  we  ask  the  Baptists,  who  demand  explicit  proof  for  the  mode 
and  subjects  of  baptism,  to  show  us  in  what  part  of  this  text  they 
find  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord,"  Lydia  and  her  household  were  immersed 
or  plunged  in  a  river  ?  There  is  nothing  resembling  it  in  all  the  text. 
There  is  nothing  resem.bling  it.  The  scriptural  narrative  of  this  case 
of  baptism  is  plain,  unvarnished,  and  complete.  And  what  does  the 
whole  narrative  amount  to  ?  Why  to  this :  Lydia  went  to  the  place 
of  prayer — heard  Paul  preach  —  the  Lord  opened  her  heart — she 
believed  the  gospel — was  baptized,  and  invited  the  apostles  to  abide 
at  her  house.     Does  this  prove  that  Lydia  was  immersed  ?     Not  one 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  237 

■word  is  said  as  to  the  mode  of  her  baptism.     It  is  said  she  was  bap- 
tized, but  no  mention  is  made  of  the  how. 

6.  The  sixth  example  of  Christian  baptism  recorded  in  the  New 
Testament,  is  that  of  the  Philippian  jailer.  See  Acts  xvi.  33:  "And 
he  took  them  the  same  hour  of  the  night,  and  washed  their  stripes ; 
and  was  baptized,  he  and  all  his,  straightway."  Now  tell  us,  ye 
advocates  of  immersion,  did  the  jailer  and  his  family  put  off  at  the 
hour  of  midnight  to  a  river,  cr^ok,  or  pond,  or  other  collection  of 
water,  to  be  plunged?  Did  the  Spirit  of  God,  under  whose  influence 
the  jailer  acted,  direct  him  to  lcs\vt>  an  important  and  responsible 
charge,  both  in  violation  of  the  laws  of  God  and  his  country',  and 
upon  the  sti-ict  observance  of  which  his  life — to  say  nothing  of  the 
happiness  of  his  family — depended,  and  follow  one  of  his  prisoners 
through  the  streets  and  back  alleys,  and  over  garden  fences,  at  mid- 
night, in  search  of  a  river,  or  pond,  or  pool  of  water,  in  which  he  and 
his  family  could  be  plunged  ?  An  ignorant  and  prejudiced  Baptist 
may  believe  this,  but  we  never  can.  We  cannot  believe  it,  moreover, 
because  it  has  no  foundation  in  Scripture  or  fact. 

But,  says  a  blind,  infatuated  Baptist,  there  was  a  bath  in  the  prison, 
in  which  the  jailer  and  his  household  were  immersed.  Where  is  this 
written?  Not  in  the  Bible.  But  what  was  a  bath  doing  there? 
Were  any  so  sharp-sighted  as  to  know  beforehand  that  the  adminis- 
trators of  Christian  baptism  would  be  committed  to  prison,  and  that 
the  keepers  of  the  prison  would  "become  obedient  to  the  faith,"  and 
desire  baptism?  Imbecility  itself,  without  the  aid  of  Baptist  bigotry, 
cannot  exceed  the  weakness  of  such  a  conclusion. 

7.  The  seventh  case  of  Christian  baptism  to  which  we  shall  allude 
in  this  connection,  recorded  in  the  New  Testament,  is  that  of  the 
twelve  disciples  at  Ephesus.   (See  Acts  xix.  1-7.) 

And  it  came  to  pass,  that  while  Apollos  was  at  Corinth.  Paul  having  passed  through 
the  upper  coasts,  came  to  Corinth;  and  finding  certain  disciples,  he  said  unto  them, 
Have  ye  received  the  Holy  Ghost  since  ye  beheved?  And  they  said  unto  him,  We 
have  not  so  much  as  heard  whether  there  be  any  Holy  Ghost  And  he  said  unto 
them,  Unto  what  then  were  ye  baptized?  And  they  said,  Unto  John's  baptism. 
Then  said  Paul,  John  verily  baptized  with  the  baptism  of  repentance,  saying  unto 
the  people  that  they  should  believe  on  him  who  should  come  after  hira,  that  is,  on 
Christ  Jesus.  When  they  heard  this,  they  were  baptized  in  the  name  of  the  Lord 
Jesus.  And  when  Paul  had  laid  his  hands  upon  them,  the  Holy  Ghost  came  on 
them ;  and  they  spake  with  tongues,  and  prophesied.  And  all  the  men  were  about 
twelve. 

This  text  only  says  that  the  twelve  disciples  were  baptized,  without 
once  referring  to  the  viode.  Of  course  it  proves  nothing  for  or  against 
the  practice  of  immersing  persons.  Having,  however,  spoken  of  this 
case  of  baptism  in  the  preceding  part  of  this  work,  we  shall  merely 
add  that  the  idea  of  these  disciples  having  been  immersed  has  no 
foundation  in  Scripture  or  fact. 

8.  The  eighth  and  last  example  of  baptism  mentioned  in  the  New 
Testament  which  we  shall  bring  to  view,  is  the  baptism  of  Crispus 
and  Gains,  and  the  household  of  Stephanas,  by  St.  Paul.  On  these 
oases  we  cannot  enlarge,  because  the  apostle  Paul  does  not  tell 
how,  nor  where,  nor  when,  he  baptized  either  of  these  persons,  or  this 


238  THE    GREAT    IRON    WUEEL    EXAMINED. 

household.     Therefore,  nothing  can  be  inferred  therefrom  concerning 
the  mode  of  baptism. 

We  have  now  examined  all  the  cai^es  of  Christian  baptism  recorded 
in  the  New  Testament,  which  took  place  after  the  new  or  Christian 
dispensation,  and  upon  which  the  Baptists  rely  for  authority  to  im- 
vierse;  and  we  arrive  at  this  conclusion,  that  it  cannot  be  proven  from 
the  New  Testament  that  the  apostles  ever  immersed  a  single  person. 
Nay,  we  unhesitatingly  affirm  tliat  no  one  ever  was  immersed  in  the 
days  of  the  apostles.  And  wc  <lefy  every  Baptist  on  earth  to  produce 
explicit  proof  from  the  Scriptures  of  any  persons  ever  having  been 
immersed  in  the  primitive  Church.  On  the  contrary,  the  nature  and 
design  of  Christian  baptism  prove  that  affusion  or  sprinkling,  rather 
than  immersion,  was  tlie  mode. 

In  1842,  I  had  a  controversy  with  the  Baptist  Banner, 
published  at  Louisville,  Kentucky;  and  I  urged  the  utter 
impracticability  of  immersion  in  those  terrible  regions  of 
frost  and  snow  traversed  by  the  sixtieth  parallel  of  northern 
latitude.  jMy  article  entire,  on  that  occasion,  compiled  from 
the  views  of  Hibbard  and  Humboldt,  and  Woodbridge's  Uni- 
versal Geography,  was  as  follows  : 

We  cannot  allow,  by  any  means,  that  baptism  by  immersion  is 
essential  to  salvation,  because  nature,  in  some  portions  of  the  world, 
has  interposed  an  instiperable  barrier  for  nine  out  of  every  twelve 
months  in  the  year — a  barrier  which,  to  the  inhabitants  of  those 
countries,  would  render  immersion  instant  death.  Not  less  than  eight 
millions  of  human  beings  now  inhabit  the  polar  and  frozen  regions 
of  the  earth,  Many  of  these  are  to  be  found  in  the  sixtieth  parallel 
of  latitude  northward,  where  the  temperature  is  such  for  two-thirds 
of  the  year,  that  wells  freeze  to  their  bottoms,  and  the  inhabitants 
can  only  get  water  to  use  by  melting  snow  or  ice.  In  the  region  of 
the  Esquimaux  the  lakes  and  streams,  however  deep,  are  frozen  to 
the  bottom  for  nine  months  in  the  year.  In  Greenland  and  Lapland 
even  baldface  and  mercury  freeze  during  the  winter.  The  inhabitants 
of  these  regions,  during  the  winter,  remain  crowded  together  in  small 
huts.  The  inhabitants  of  Siberia,  especially,  stop  the  openings  in 
their  houses  with  ice  and  snow,  and  use  ice  instead  of  glass.  Every 
part  of  the  body  must  be  covered  in  going  out,  or  it  is  instantly 
frozen.  The  cold  often  causes  trees  and  rocks  to  split,  and  make  loud 
reports ! 

In  these  sections,  we  ask,  in  all  candor,  how  could  immersion  be 
performed?  Not  by  melting  snow  or  ice.  Not  by  baths,  for  they 
would  freeze  up.  And  yet  in  these  cold  regions  dwell  millions  of 
human  beings,  as  good  by  nature  as  we  are;  and  if  this  mode  of 
baptism  be  essential  to  salvation,  they  must  be  lost.     It  is  not  saying 


THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  239 

much  for  either  the  wisdom  or  goodness  of  God,  to  contend  that  he 
has  established  an  ordinance  of  perpetual  obligation  which,  though 
adapted  to  the  convenience  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  burning  sands 
of  the  south,  excludes  from  his  Chm-ch  all  whose  misfortune  it  is  to 
reside  amidst  the  perpetual  and  eternal  snows  of  Lapland,  Green- 
land, or  that  more  frozen  region,  Siberia !  Even  with  us  there  are 
six  months  of  the  year  during  which  immersion  is  performed  with 
great  inconvenience,  producing  sensations  we  should  think  by  no 
means  pleasant  to  the  "outward  man;"  unless,  indeed,  we  attach  a 
merit  to  such  sensations,  according  to  a  Catholic's  idea  of  penance, 
or  a  Brahmin's  notion  of  self-mortification. 

This  objection  to  immersion,  arising  from  climate,  has  always  kept 
Baptist  missionaries  within  warm  latitudes.  While  other  Protestant 
sects  of  Europe  have  penetrated  northward  into  Norway  and  Lapland, 
ay,  and  Greenland,  the  Baptist  missionaries  have  confined  their  labors 
to  Germany,  the  southern  parts  of  Poland,  and  some  of  the  states  of 
Austria.  They  have  missionaries  in  India,  Africa,  and  among  the 
aborigines  of  America ;  but  no  Baptist  missionary  ever  yet  attempted 
to  organize  a  society  in  the  frozen  regions  of  Lapland,  Siberia,  Lab- 
rador, or  Central  Paissia,  and  for  this  very  good  reason  too,  that 
nature  has  rendered  the  ordinance  of  baptism  by  immersion  wholly 
impracticable ! 

A  single  quotation   from  Vroodbridge's  Geography,  page 

145,    seventh   edition,   will  piistain    me    in   the    views    here 

expressed : 

During  the  winter  the  inhabitants  of  the  coldest  parts  remain 
crowded  together  in  small  huts.  The  whole  inside  of  a  hut  or  ship 
is  usually  lined  with  ice  from  the  vapor  of  breath,  which  must  be  cut 
away  every  morning.  The  inhabitants  of  Siberia  stop  the  openings 
of  their  houses  with  ice,  and  use  it  instead  of  glass.  If  the  cold  air 
suddenly  enter  the  house,  the  vapors  fall  in  a  shower  of  snow.  Every 
part  of  the  body  must  be  covered  in  going  out,  or  it  is  instantly 
frozen.  The  air,  when  breathed,  seems  to  pierce  and  even  rend  the 
lungs.  The  cup  often  freezes  to  the  lips  if  it  be  touched  in  drinking. 
The  provisions  must  be  cut  with  hatchets  and  saws.  Trees  and  the 
beams  of  houses  are  split  by  the  frost,  and  rocks  are  rent  with  a 
noise  like  that  of  firearms. 

To    this   article   the  Rev.    editor  of  the  Banner  replied, 

charging  me  with  ignorance  of  history  and  geography.     To 

which  I,  in  part,  replied  as  follows  : 

It  has  been  ascertained  by  Humboldt  and  others,  who  have  care- 
fully traced  those  lines  of  equal  temperature  usually  called  the  iso- 
thermal lines,  that  not  less  than  eight  millions  of  human  beings  inhabit 
the  polar  regions.  To  these  souls  the  gospel  must  be  promulgated, 
and  its  ordinances  administered.     Churches  must  be  organized  in  the 


240  THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED. 

very  centre  of  these  most  frozen  regions.  But  the  Baptists  cannot 
organize  those  churches,  nor  administer  those  ordinances,  especially 
that  of  baptism,  because,  nine  months  in  the  year,  their  mode  of  bap- 
tism would  bo  more  galling  than  the  bloody  rite  of  circumcision. 

But  we  are  boastingly  asked  if  we  "know  that  the  Greek  Church 
prevails  in  Central  Russia,  and  that  they  are  all  /rmc-immersionists?" 
We  do  know  that  the  Greek  Church  claims  the  territory  of  the  whole 
Russian  empire  in  Europe,  a  great  part  of  Siberia  in  Asia,  the  entire 
country  in  Palestine,  Syria,  Mesopotamia,  Egypt,  Arabia,  and,  in 
short,  the  whole  of  the  old  world ;  and,  in  this  respect,  is  truly  the 
universal  Cliurch.  But  we  happen  to  know,  likewise,  that  the  head 
of  the  Greek  Church,  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  resides  in  that 
famous  capital,  where  a  synod  convenes  monthly,  for  the  transaction 
of  ecclesiastical  business,  the  twelve  bishops  attending.  And  while 
we  know  all  this,  we  happen  to  know  more:  we  know  that  this  Church 
has  never  organized  churches  in  one-tenth  part  of  the  extent  of 
territory  they  claim  the  control  of;  and  we  know,  too,  that  she 
baptizes  children,  and  admits  them  to  the  table  of  the  Lord.  Unlike 
the  Baptists  in  every  respect.  This  editor  can  find  an  account,  on 
the  eightieth  page  of  his  own  History,  (Benedict's,  vol.  i.,)  of  a  Greek 
priest  cutting  a  hole  in  the  ice,  and  immersing  a  child,  when  uninten- 
tionally he  let  it  slip  through  into  the  water  and  drown!  The  holy 
administrator  exclaimed:  "-Give  me  another,  for  the  Lord  hath  taken 
that  to  himself!  !"  The  parents  on  the  bank  declined,  however,  and 
said  they  were  not  willing  the  Lord  should  receive  any  more  in  that 
way.  Better  sprinkle,  we  should  think.  Query:  Have  the  Baptist 
missionaries  kept  out  of  "Central  Russia"  for  fear  of  having  to 
encounter  these  Greek  ^^ trine"  immersers  of  children?  Verily,  "when 
Greek  meets  Greek,  then  comes  the  tug  of  war." 

From  the  ignorance  manifested  by  this  reverend  editor,  it  is  more 
than  likely  he  labors  under  the  impression  that  "Central  Russia"  is  in 
the  "Canadas,  Nova  Scotia,  New  Brunswick,  and  other  British  pos- 
sessions in  North  America!"  On  this  point  it  may  be  well  enough  to 
enlighten  the  gentleman.  Russia  proper  is  a  very  large  empire, 
partly  in  Asia  and  partly  in  Europe :  bounded  on  the  north  by  the 
Frozen  ocean ;  on  the  south  by  Great  Tartary,  the  Caspian  sea,  and 
Persia ;  on  the  east  by  the  sea  of  Japan ;  and  on  the  west  by  Sweden, 
Poland,  and  the  Black  sea.  The  greatest  part  of  this  empire  lies  in 
the  temperate  zone,  within  which  limits  the  Greek  Church  ope- 
rates, baptizing  children  by  ''trine"  immersion,  and  administering  to 
them  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  "Central  Russia"  is  in 
and  beyond  the  sixty-sixth  degree  of  latitude,  lies  in  the  frigid  zone, 
where  there  are  neither  Greeks  nor  Baptists,  for  reasons  heretofore 
named.     Does  the  editor  consider  himself  instructed? 

RUSSIAN  BAPTISM. 

It  is  always  performed  by  immersion.  In  the  rich  houses,  two 
tables  are  laid  out  in  the  drawing-room  by  the  priest :  one  is  covered 
with  holy  images,  and  on  the  other  is  placed  an  enormous  silver 


(^'' -'-^  •:^^f^b%r 


Pi  I'll,.]  ih 


THE   GREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  241 

basin  filled  with  water,  surrounded  by  small  wax  tapers.  The  chief 
priest  begins  by  consecrating  the  font,  and  plunging  a  silver  cross 
repeatedly  in  the  water:  he  then  takes  the  child,  and,  after  reciting 
certain  prayers,  undresses  it  completely.  The  process  of  immersion 
takes  place  twice,  and  so  rigorously  that  the  head  must  disappear 
under  the  water :  the  infant  is  then  restored  to  its  nurse,  and  the 
sacrament  is  finally  administered.  In  former  times,  when  a  child  had 
the  misfortune  to  be  born  in  winter,  it  was  plunged  without  pity 
under  the  ice,  or  into  water  of  the  same  temperature.  In  the  present 
day  that  rigor  has  been  relaxed  by  permission  of  the  Church,  and 
warm  water  is  substituted  for  the  other;  but  the  common  people  still 
adhere  scrupulously  to  the  ancient  practice,  in  all  seasons.  On  these 
occasions  numbers  of  children  are  baptized  at  the  same  time  on  the 
ice,  and  the  cold  often  proves  fatal  to  them.  It  sometimes  happens, 
also,  that  a  child  slips  through  the  hands  of  a  priest,  and  is  lost ;  in 
which  case  he  only  exclaims :  "God  has  been  pleased  to  take  this 
infant  to  himself:  hand  me  another;"  and  the  poor  people  submit  to 
their  loss  without  a  murmur,  as  the  dispensation  of  Heaven. 

AN  INDECENT  PERSONAL  EXHIBITION. 

During  the  cold  spring  of  1842,  on  two  diflferent  occasions,  at  Che- 
rokee Church,  in  Washington  County,  Tennessee,  the  Baptist  pastor, 
Elder  B.,  after  immersing  several  persons,  came  out  of  the  water  and 
changed  his  clothes  in  the  presence  of  the  multitude,  as  indicated  by 
this  engi'aving,  and  all  in  the  presence  of  males  and  females !  He 
was  a  very  tall  man,  knockkneed  and  rawboned — any  thing  but  hand- 
some when  dressed ! 

At  one  time  he  stripped  himself  to  his  shirt,  on  the  plain,  around 
a  fire,  and  in  the  presence  of  a  crowd  of  females,  some  of  whom 
actually  ran !  At  another  time  he  changed  his  clothes  in  the  pulpit, 
before  the  congregation,  preparatory  to  administering  the  Baptist, 
not  the  Lord's  Supper. 

Now,  for  this  contempt  of  the  decencies  of  life,  the  reverend  gen- 
tleman ought  to  have  been  indicted  for  an  mdecent  exhibition  of  his 
person.  It  is  a  shame  and  a  disgrace  to  any  Church,  and  to  the  entire 
Church,  and  calculated  to  bring  religion  into  contempt.  And  for  this, 
as  well  as  other  reasons,  we  denounce  such  practices.  Let  the  people 
of  every  order  frown  down  such  vulgarities.  And  let  all  females  who 
have  not  a  taste  for  such  sights,  stay  away  from  such  places  until 
better  order  be  observed. 

SUMMARY  OF  THE  WHOLE. 

We  have  now  said  what  we  desired  to  say  in  this  work,  and  what 
we  deemed  necessary  to  be  said;  and  from  what  has  been  said  we 
may  learn : 

1.  That  baptism  is  a  sacrament  of  the  gospel,  which  was  instituted 
by  our  Saviour  for  very  important  purposes ;  that  he  designed  it  to  be 
perpetuated  in  his  Church,  in  every  clime,  to  the  end  of  time ;  that  it 
11 


242  THE    GREAT    IKON    WHEEL    EXAMINED. 

is  the  duty  of  all  Christian  people  to  attend  to  it,  and  no  less  the 
duty  of  all  authorized  ministers  to  administer  it  in  all  proper  cases, 
who,  by  the  way,  can  alone  lawfully  administer  this  sacrament,  but 
who  have  no  authority  to  rebaptize. 

2.  That  penitent  adults,  adult  believers,  and  the  infant  children  of 
nil  baptized  parents,'^"  together  with  the  servants  of  such  persons,  pro- 
vided they  are  charged  with  their  education  or  training,  are  proper 
subjects  of  Christian  baptism,  and,  as  such,  should  not  be  kept  from 
the  ordinance. 

3.  That  no  one  mode  of  baptism  is  laid  down  in  the  Scriptures,  to 
the  exclusion  of  all  others ;  that  it  may  be  validly  administered  either 
by  sprinklinff,  ov  pouring,  or  by  immersion;  but  that,  nevertheless,  the 
Scriptures  do  aiibrd  more  evidence  in  favor  of  sprinkling  and  pouring 
than  of  immersion. 

4.  That  too  manj'  persons  substitute  an  attention  to  this  outward 
ordinance  that  ought  to  be  paid  to  inward  piety  and  an  upright  life ; 
that,  instead  of  using  baptism  as  a  means  of  grace,  they  abuse  it  to 
their  own  destruction ;  that,  instead  of  laboring  to  become  holy  here, 
and  of  being  fitted  for  the  inheritance  of  saints  in  light,  they  seek 
after  a  mere  shadotv,  in  the  vain  hope  that  it  will  lead  them  to  the 
uninterrupted  enjoyment  of  that  eternal  and  enduring  Substance 
which  baptism  is  designed  to  represent. 

*  We  of  course  hold  the  doctrine  that  all  infant  children,  whether  of  believing 
parents  or  not,  are  entitled  to  baptism  on  account  of  their  own  relation  to  Christ 
and  to  his  kingdom,  and  not  of  that  of  their  parents — "  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom 
of  God." 


THE  GREAT   IRON   WHEEL  EXAMINED.  243 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

Elder  Graves  perpetrates  twenty-five  falsehoods  in  one  chapter  of 
twelve  pages,  being  over  two  lies  to  a  page — Espouses  the  cause 
of  local  preachers,  at  the  expense  of  the  travelling  ministry  — 
Plays  off  the  demagogue,  and  misrepresents  the  laws  of  the  Method- 
ist Church — Proves  himself  unworthy  of  the  confidence  of  honest 
men  of  all  denominations  ! 

J.  R.  Graves,  of  Nashville,  and  ^'  Editor  of  the  Tennes- 
see Baptist/'  claims  to  be  one  of  the  clerical  successors  of 
the  apostles ;  and  by  virtue  of  his  lineal  descent  from  John 
the  Baptist,  claims,  in  connection  with  the  ministers  of  his 
own  "faith  and  order/'  the  exclusive  right  of  administering 
the  ordinances  of  the  Church,  exclusive  qualifications  to  in- 
struct mankind  in  the  important  doctrines  of  salvation,  and, 
as  a  matter  of  course,  to  reform  the  manners  and  customs  of 
the  several  sjjurious  sects  of  the  country.  I  propose  to  show 
that  this  man  Graves  and  his  associates  are  not  the  only  au- 
thorized expounders  of  God's  word  —  the  only  authorized 
administrators  of  the  ordinances  of  the  Church — and  that 
they  have  by  no  means  been  set  for  the  general  reforma- 
tion of  men  and  manners  by  the  Head  of  the  Church  !  I 
propose  to  show,  in  other  words,  that  if  the  arrogant  claims 
set  up  by  these  bigoted  sectarians  are  even  well  founded, 
neither  the  temper,  nor  inoraliiy,  nor  example  set  by  Graves, 
qualifies  him  for  the  position  he  has  assumed ! 

I  propose  to  show  that  Graves  has  perpetrated  TWENTY- 
FIVE  FALSEHOODS  in  one  chapter  of  his  book,  a  short 
chapter  at  that,  composed  of  only  tv^elve  pages,  making  more 


244  THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

than  Hco  lies  to  a  joaffc.  Not  so  bad  for  one  of  the  successors 
of  the  apostles,  in  a  direct  lineal  descent  from  John  the  Bap- 
tist I  The  chapter  I  allude  to  is  Chapter  20th,  commencing 
on  page  225 ;  and  I  declare,  upon  the  honor  of  one  who 
expects  to  give  an  account  in  the  future  to  the  Judge  of  all 
men,  that  this  is  but  a  fair  specimen  of  the  other  thirty-nine 
chapters  of  his  book  ! 

An  able  article  from  the  pen  of  Rev.  Wesley  Smith  ap- 
pears in  the  Texas  Christian  Advocate  of  September,  1855, 
taking  the  same  view  of  this  subject;  but  as  it  is  written 
more  in  detail  than  answers  my  purpose,  I  will  present  an 
abridged  view  of  the  subject.  Graves  is  really  so  ignorant 
of  the  economy  of  Methodism,  that  he  takes  the  absurd 
ground  that  all  local  preachers  in  our  Church  were  once  itine- 
rant preachers;  whereas,  a  great  majority  of  them  never 
were  members  of  our  Annual  Conference,  and  never  even 
desired  to  be.  And  when  ministers  of  our  Church  locate, 
they  do  it  voluntarily.  When  local  preachers  join  a  Confer- 
ence, they  are  received  or  rejected  by  a  majority  vote  of  the 
Conference,  just  as  young  men  are  when  they  first  enter  the 
travelling  ministry,  according  to  their  merits  or  demerits, 
talents  or  want  of  talents.  I  was  ten  years  an  itinerant 
preacher.,  and  in  that  time  a  member  of  the  General  Confer- 
ence. I  have  been  twenty  years  a  local  preacher — I  know 
what  are  the  rights  and  privileges  of  local  preachers — and  I 
am  pleased  witli  the  government  of  my  Church  as  it  is.  The 
dedication,  then,  of  this  lying  chapter  to  local  preachers,  in 
its  conclusion,  is  a  species  of  demagogueism  that  all  high- 
minded  and  well-informed  local  preachers  will  treat  with 
scorn  and  contempt !  But  I  will  turn  my  attention  to  the 
celebrated  chapter  alluded  to. 

FALSEnOOD    KO.    1. 

A  travelling  preacher  is  evidently  considered  the  most  useful  to 
your  society,  and  indeed  the  only  leg iti male  preacher. 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL  EXAMINED.  245 

This  is  2i  palpable  falsehood  J  inasmuch  as  a  local  preachei 
receives  the  same  kind  of  license  that  an  itinerant  does : 
takes  upon  him  the  same  ordination  vows  :  holds  the  same 
order  of  credentials  :  administers  the  sacraments  :  solemnizes 
the  rites  of  matrimony;  and  attends  to  the  burial  of  the  dead 
The  only  difference  between  them  is,  that  the  one  is  the^?asto?* 
of  the  church,  while  the  other  preaches  when  and  where, 
in  his  own  judgment,  there  seems  to  be  a  demand  for  his 
services. 

PALSEHOOD   NO.    2. 

Consequently,  the  strongest  possible  influences  are  brought  to  bear 
upon  the  preachers  to  keep  them  in  the  saddle. 

To  my  own  knowledge,  the  above  statement  is  false.  No 
influences  are  ever  brought  to  bear  upon  itinerant  preachers 
to  keep  them  in  the  regular  work,  when  their  pecuniary 
necessities  and  the  increasing  demands  of  their  families  re- 
quire them  to  locate.  Every  man  in  the  work  can  locate  at 
his  Annual  Conference,  if  he  is  in  good  standing,  and  take 
with  him  a  certificate  of  his  location  and  good  character. 
Both  a  man's  connection  with  and  retirement  from  the  work 
are  voluntary.  It  is  a  matter  of  regret,  at  all  Conferences, 
that  some  useful  men  are  forced  to  retire,  from  a  want  of  that 
support  necessary  for  their  families. 

FALSEHOOD    NO.    3. 

And  every  obstacle  thrown  in  the  way  to  deter  them  from  locating 
or  becoming  pastors. 

When  our  preachers  locate,  instead  of  becoming  pastors, 
they  really  cease  to  be  pastors.  Here,  then,  are  three  bare 
falsehoods  found  in  one  short  sentence ! 

FALSEHOOD    NO.    4. 

The  office  of  pastor,  the  most  common  ofl5ce  of  the  Christian  minis- 
ter, in  the  days  of  the  apostles,  is  wholly  ignored  by  you,  and  that 
of  evangelist  substituted  in  its  place. 


246       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

This  is  false,  inasmuch  as  we  have  a  regular  pastorate^ 
though  the  Discipline  requires  the  pastor  to  be  chanfred  every 
two  years.  The  Baptist,  and  other  congrrgational  churches, 
have  a  great  deal  of  trouble  at  times  in  ridding  themselves  of 
men  who  do  more  harm  than  good.  The  Baptist  Church  in 
Nashville  refused,  last  October,  to  endorse  J.  R.  Graves's 
Christian  character,  after  a  severe  struggle  on  his  part.  He 
had  lived  among  them  too  long,  and  they  knew  him  too  well! 

FALSEHOOD    NO.    5. 

They  (the  people)  are  not  even  allowed  the  right  to  petition  for  his 
(the  preacher's)  return. 

This  is  a  more  deliberate  falsehood  than  either  of  the  fore- 
going, inasmuch  as  our  people  regularly  petition  for  preach- 
ers, and  are  as  regularly  granted  their  requests.  We  local 
preachers  are  regularly  consulted  by  the  Bishops  and  Presid- 
ing Elders,  as  to  who  will  best  serve  the  interests  of  the 
Church  on  our  circuits  and  stations.  In  our  Quarterly,  An- 
nual, and  General  Conferences,  the  right  of  our  people  to 
petition  is  conceded,  and  their  petitions  are  always  treated 
with  the  utmost  respect. 

FALSEHOOD    NO.    6. 

Speaking  of  a  meagre  fund  provided  by  our  Church  for 
the  support  of  worn-out  preachers,  and  the  widows  and  or- 
phans of  deceased  preachers,  Graves  says  : 

Who  doubts  that  multitudes  of  Methodist  preachers  become  such 
through  the  influence  of  this  strong  consolation  held  out  to  them  by 
the  ciders  ? 

That  Methodist  preachers  enter  the  itinerancy  for  the  sake 
of  an  annual  dividend  of  fifty  or  sixty  dollars  per  annum, 
after  they  are  broken  cloivn,  or  a  dividend  of  fifteen  to  twenty 
for  each  of  several  children,  after  the  death  of  the  father, 
carries  the  lie  upon  its  very  face.  Every  candid  and  sensible 
man  knows  that  many  join  our  ranks  with  means — travel  and 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  247 

preach  until  they  exhaust  their  means,  and  then  locate  be- 
cause their  support  is  inadequate. 

FALSEHOOD    NO.    7. 

And  •who  doubts  that  multitudes  continue  their  connection  with  the 
Methodists  through  the  influence  of  this  fund  for  superannuated 
preachers  ? 

No  man  having  any  acquaintance  with  Methodism  supposes 
any  such  a  thing.  Graves,  and  such  understrikers  as  the 
'^  North  Carolina  Publishing  Society  of  the  Baptist  Church," 
may  suppose  such  a  thing.  Honest,  candid,  and  well-informed 
men  know  it  is  a  lie  ! 

FALSEHOOD    NO.    8. 

But  he  (the  preacher  who  locates)  is  degraded  at  once  in  the  eyes 
of  the  whole  travelling  connection,  in  the  eyes  of  his  Bishop,  of 
the  world;  for  they  (the  travelling  preachers)  take  care  that  it  shall 
be  so. 

This  discovei'y  never  was  made  by  any  local  or  travelling 
preacher  !  Dr.  Bond,  editor  of  the  New  York  Christian 
Advocate,  0.  B.  Ross,  late  of  Kentucky,  Judge  Longstreet, 
of  Mississippi,  United  States  Senator  Colquitt,  of  Georgia, 
and  ex-Representatives  in  Congress,  Sexter  and  Taylor,  of 
East  Tennessee,  were  local  preachers.  These  men  were  never 
degraded  in  the  eyes  of  their  brethren,  or  of  the  world. 
And  these  are  only  a  few  of  the  dead  and  living  evidences  of 
the  falsehood  of  Graves's  statement. 

FALSEHOOD   NO.    9, 

He  (the  preacher  who  locates)  is  degraded  from  the  rank  he  held 
with  them  (the  travelling  preachers.) 

This  is  notoriously  false  ;  for  if  he  were  a  deacon  or  elder, 
he  is  still  the  same,  retaining  his  credentials,  and  carrying 
with  him  an  additional  certificate  of  his  honorable  withdrawal 
from  the  Annual  Conference  ! 


248       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

FALSEHOOD    NO.    10. 

His  name  is  carried  down  and  put  upon  a  class  paper,  and  some 
smooth-chinned  and  brainless  boy  of  a  class-leader  now  has  jurisdic- 
tion over  the  aged  veteran,  in  conjunction  witli  some  equally  endowed 
circuit-rider.  What  a  fall !  How  humiliating  to  a  man  possessed  of 
self-respect ! 

Every  word  of  the  foregoing  is  false,  in  the  connection  in 
which  it  stands.  The  Quarterly  Conference,  and  not  the 
class-leader,  has  jurisdiction  over  all  the  local  preachers  in  the 
circuit  or  station.  This  Conference  is  composed  of  all  the 
preachers,  exhorters,  leaders,  and  stewards  in  the  circuit  or 
station.  The  local  preacher,  moreover,  has  the  right  of  appeal 
to  the  Annual  Conference.     {See  Discipline.') 

FALSEHOOD    NO.    11. 

He  (the  local  preacher)  is  subjected  to  the  most  rigid  and  oppres- 
sive espionage  on  the  part  of  those  whose  love  of  rule  is  gratified  in 
subjecting  their  former  sovereign  to  their  wills,  if  they  have  no  old 
scores  to  settle  with  him. 

This  entire  statement,  in  evert/  particular,  is  false.  I  have 
been  a  local  preacher  for  twenty  years — I  never  heard  of  this 
^'oppressive  espionage" — I  never  felt  it — I  have  enjoyed  the 
largest  liberty — so  do  all  local  preachers — it  has  no  existence 
in  the  Methodist  Church  ! 

FALSEHOOD   NO.    12. 

They  (the  class-leader  and  preacher  in  charge)  cannot  exclude  him 
(the  local  preacher)  without  a  hearing,  but  they  can  arraign  him  as 
often  as  they  please  before  the  quarterly  court,  the  majority  of  it 
being  class-leaders  and  preachers  in  charge,  and  he  being  nothing  but  a 
local  minister ;  and  can  be  represented  as  troublesome,  disposed  to  ex- 
ercise too  much  authority  and  influence,  and  greatly  in  the  way;  the 
class-leader  and  circuit-i-iders  can  easily  come  to  the  conclusion  that, 
xipon  the  whole,  he  had  better  be  divested  of  his  ministerial  office. 

This  statement  is  false  by  suppression,  false  by  denial,  and 
false  by  misrepresentation.  No  local  deacon  or  elder  ever 
was  deprived  of  his  ministerial  functions  by  the  arbitrary 
conduct  of  class-leaders  and  preachers  in   charge.     He  can 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  249 

only  be  suspended  from  his  ministerial  office  by  a  -committee 
of  local  preacbers.  His  court  of  trial  is  the  Quarterly  Con- 
ference— if  dissatisfied  with  its  decision,  he  can  appeal  to  the 
Annual  Conference,  whose  decision  is  final.  See  our  Dis- 
cipline, under  the  head  "  Local  Preachers,''  and  see  how  it 
puts  this  villainous  slanderer  to  the  blush ! 

FALSEHOOD    NO.    13. 

By  simply  removing  to  a  distant  neighborhood,  he  (the  local 
preacher)  does  it  at  the  forfeiture  of  his  ministerial  office,  for  the 
law  empowers  the  presiding  elder  or  preacher  in  charge  to  give  or 
ivithhold  a  certificate  of  his  official  standing  as  they  please. 

This  is  an  inexcusable  and  a  most  malicious  falsehood. 
Every  local  preacher's  character  is  examined  once  a  year  in 
his  Quarterly  Meeting  Conference,  and  if  nothing  appear 
against  him,  the  minutes  must  show  that  fact.  And  when- 
ever he  desires  to  remove  from  one  circuit  to  another,  or  from 
one  State  to  another,  the  presiding  elder  or  preacher  in 
charge  is  hound  to  grant  Mm  a  certificate  of  removal,  setting 
forth  that  he  is  in  good  standing.  This  is  the  law  of  our 
Church,  and  I  know  it  to  be  the  iLsage,  from  Maine  to  Cali- 
fornia, as  well  as  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  ! 

FALSEHOOD    ^0.    14. 

Local  preachers  are  generally  a  persecuted  class. 

This  is  false,  unless  Graves  intends  to  say  they  are  perse- 
cuted by  Baptist  preachers,  bigoted  sectarians  under  their 
influence,  and  by  wicked  men  and  devils  ! 

FALSEHOOD    XO.    15. 

A  local  preacher  thus  expostulates  with  Mr.  McFerrin,  the  editor 
of  the  Methodist  Advocate  in  this  city,  (Nashville,)  who,  living  at 
home  on  a  fat  salary,  can  even  write  disrespectfully  of  local 
preachers. 

It  is  false  that  Dr.  McFerrin  ever  wrote  or  spoke  "  disre- 


250       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

spectfully  of  local  preachers."  On  the  contraryj  he  has 
spoken  and  written  of  them  in  terras  of  high  regard.  He 
may  have  denounced  some  one  or  more  cases,  but  this  has  no 
more  to  do  with  local  preachers,  as  a  class  of  men,  than  ray 
denunciations  of  Graves's  falsehoods  has  to  do  with  pious 
and  gentlemanly  Baptist  preachers,  to  whom  I  make  no  al- 
lusions ! 

FALSEHOOD    NO.    16. 

If  the  preacher  locates  with  a  very  extensive  and  powerful  influ- 
ence, he  becomes  obnoxious  at  once  to  the  preacher  in  charge. 

The  very  reverse  of  this  is  the  truth  !  The  practical  work- 
ings of  Methodism  show,  that  the  more  popular  the  local 
preacher,  and  the  greater  the  influence  he  exerts,  the  more 
apt  the  preacher  in  charge  is  to  be  on  terms  of  intimacy  with 
him  ;  and  for  two  reasons — first,  because  of  his  supposed 
merits,  and  next,  because  of  the  service  he  can  render  the 
travelling  preacher  in  building  up  his  church,  and  in  procur- 
ing his  support. 

FALSEHOOD    NO.    17. 

Suppose  he  (the  local  preacher)  is  a  far  superior  preacher,  and  the 
people  far  more  desirous  of  hearing  him,  and  his  opinion  far  more 
influential  in  the  town  or  community:  the  circuit-rider  is  not  long 
discovering  it,  nor  long  in  putting  on  foot  a  course  of  treatment  to 
remedy  the  evil. 

Graves  measures  other  men's  corn  by  his  own  half  bushel. 
These  unworthy  motives  governed  him  in  his  war  upon 
Professor  Duncan,  of  New  Orleans,  and  those  Baptist 
preachers  of  Louisville,  as  well  as  his  opposition  to  Hillsman's 
Baptist  paper  in  Knoxville.  Methodist  preachers,  as  a  body 
of  men,  both  local  and  travelling,  are  on  terms  of  as  much 
kindness  and  confidence  as  any  equal  number  of  men  on 
earth. 


THE   GREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  251 

FALSEHOOD    XO.    18. 

It  is  bruited  about  that  he  tcont  or  donH  observe  the  rules — very 
good,  but  not  pious — not  much  of  a  Methodist  in  his  feelings,  for  he 
don't  attend  class. 

This  is  false,  for  no  such  stuff  is  ^^  bruited  about/'  only  among 
l^aptist  opposers  of  Methodism.  And  the  insinuation  that 
local  preachers  don't  attend  to  rule  is  maliciously  false. 

FALSEHOOD    NO.    19. 

It  is  distasteful  telling  his  experience  over  fifty-two  times  a  year. 

The  falsehood  of  this  short  sentence  consists  in  the  insinu- 
ation that  local  preachers  are  opposed  to  class-meetings,  as 
distasteful  meetings.  Local  preachers  are  expected  to  circu- 
late as  widely  as  they  can,  and  preach,  and  are  not  therefore 
required  to  attend  class-meetings  every  week. 

FALSEHOOD    NO.    20. 

The  preacher  may  reprehend  him  on  a  bare  report  that  the  local 
preacher  has  used  improper  words,  and  the  preacher  is  the  judge 
what  words  are  improper  in  a  local  preacher ;  or  is  reported  to  bo 
guilty  of  improper  tempers,  and  the  preacher  is  the  judge ;  or  im- 
proper actions,  and  his  reverence,  the  preacher  in  charge,  is  the 
judge ! 

Now,  the  difference  between  Graves  and  our  Discipline  on 
this  point,  is  just  the  difference  between  truth  and  false- 
hood; and  falsehood  has  the  advantage,  as  set  forth  by 
Graves.     Here  is  what  the  Discipline  says  : 

Question  1. — What  shall  be  done  when  a  local  elder,  deacon,  or 
preacher  is  reported  to  be  guilty  of  improper  tempers,  words,  or 
actions  ? 

Answer. — The  person  so  offending  shall  be  reprehended  by  the 
preacher  having  charge.  Should  a  second  transgression  take  place, 
one,  two,  or  three  faithful  friends  are  to  be  taken  as  witnesses.  If 
he  be  not  then  cured,  he  shall  be  tried  at  the  next  Quarterly  Confer- 
ence, and  if  found  guilty  and  impenitent,  he  shall  be  expelled  from 
the  Church. 


252  THE    GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

FALSEHOOD    NO.    21. 

Where  is  there  a  local  preacher  who  ever  left  the  circuit  with  a 
commanding  cliaracter  and  controlling  influence,  who  was  ever  able 
to  keep  it  five  years? 

The  LIE  here  perpetrated  consists  in  the  charging,  by  way 
of  interrogatory,  that  no  Methodist  preacher  ever  located  with 
character  and  influence,  who  did  not  forfeit  both  in  five  years ! 
The  slander  needs  only  to  be  stated. 

FALSEHOOD   NO.    22. 

More:  lives  there  a  local  preacher  who  enjoys  to-day  one-tenth  the 
influence  and  reputation  he  did  when  a  member  of  the  preacher's 
church  ? 

Yes,  hundreds  are  to  be  found.  I  know  many  local 
preachers  who  wield  more  influence  than  the  presiding  elder 
and  all  the  circuit  preachers  of  their  district ! 

FALSEHOOD    NO.    23. 

He  is  a  degraded  man. 

Poor  fellow!!  I  should  be  sori-y  for  him  if  the  charge 
came  from  a  source  entitled  to  credit. 

FALSEHOOD    NO.    24. 

He  is  snubbed  about  and  domineered  over  by  beardless  class- 
leaders  and  circuit-riders  until  he  loses  his  self-respect. 

This  statement  carries  the  lie  upon  its  face ;  and  if  it  did 
not,  its  utter  want  of  foundation  in  truth  has  been  demon- 
strated in  my  preceding  remarks,  and  quotations  from  the 
Discipline. 

FALSEHOOD   NO.    25. 

What  chapters  of  the  lives  and  wrongs  of  local  preachers  might  be 
written!  The  iron  has  pierced  through  the  soul  of  hundreds;  and 
they  who  have  been  the  faithful  servants  of  their  society  through  the 
vigor  of  youth  and  strength  of  manhood,  are  going  down  to  their 
graves  dishonored  and  oppressed  by  its  unfeeling,  unkindness,  and 
tyranny 


THE   GREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  253 

Now,  I  have  only  to  say  to  Graves,  his  "North  Carolina 
Publishing  Society/'  and  other  understrikers,  that  there  is 
not  a  single  local  preacher  in  the  Methodist  Church,  South, 
out  of  the  thou'sands  in  good  standing,  who  will  not  unhesi- 
tatingly pronounce  the  foregoing  false  in  every  particular. 
After  thirty  years  of  close  and  intimate  fellowship  with  local 
preachers,  in  different  States,  I  pronounce  the  foregoing  quo- 
tation from  Graves's  book  an  unmitigated  slander.  The  whole 
book  is  a  falsehood,  and  the  man  himself  is  a  lie  ! 


254  THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 


CHAPTER    XV. 

Three  specimens  of  deliberate  lying — A  vulgar,  false,  and  slanderous 
caricature  of  a  Methodist  revival — The  challenge  by  the  North 
Carolina  Publishing  Society  of  the  Baptist  Church — Replies  pf 
Doctors  Lee  and  Deems — Graves  publicly  caned  for  slander — The 
Baptist  "Western  Recorder"  against  Graves,  alluding  to  his  Church 
troubles  in  Nashville — His  abuse  at  Bowling-Green — Damages  ob- 
tained against  Graves  in  Tennessee,  for  libel,  to  the  extent  of 
$7,500 — Mortgages  all  his  property  away,  under  peculiar  circum- 
stances ! 

Whenever  Graves  has  told  a  truth  in  his  strictures  upon 

and  exposure  of  Methodism,  he  has  told  it  in  such  a  way,  and 

so  worded  his  expressions,  as  to  make  a  fahe  impression ; 

which  is  not  only  equivalent  to,  but  is  the  very  worst  species 

of  lying.     And  as  this  chapter  will  be  occupied  with  the 

challenge  of  the  ''North  Carolina  Baptist  Publishing  Society'' 

to  Doctors  Smith,  Lee,  and  Deems,  to  meet  Grraves  in  the 

city  of  Raleigh,  and  discuss  the  issues  made  in  the  ''Iron 

Wheel"  of  the  latter,  I  will  give  three  specimens  of  Graves's 

mode  of  lying,  when  he  even  seems  to  be  telling  the  truth, 

that  this  Baptist  committee  may  have  no  room  for  escape.     I 

could  give  many  others  equally  palpable,  but  these  three  will 

suffice  as  specimens: 

1st.  The  bishops  have  every  press  in  all  Methodism  under  their 
control,  as  much  as  Pio  Nino  or  any  absolute  monarch  in  Europe. 
They  appoint  the  editors,  and  change  them  at  pleasure. — P.  192. 

Now  look  at  the  Discipline  : 

"All  of  whom  (the  editors)  shall  be  elected  by  the  General  Confe- 
rence," etc.    (Dis.,  ed.  1846,  p.  191.) 

2d.  He  must  obtain  the  privilege  from  his  society  or  class-meeting 
to  exhort.     This  is  of  easy  accomplishment.     And,  mark  it,  this  is 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  255 

the  only  instance  in  the  life  of  a  Methodist  preacher  when  his  name 
comes  before  the  laity. — P.  208. 

Now  look  at  the  Discipline  : 

"  Provided,  that  no  person  shall  be  licensed  to  preach  without  the 
recommendation  of  the  society  of  ivhich  he  is  a  member,  or  of  a  leaders' 
meeting."  (Dis.,  p.  34.)     A  leaders'  meeting  is  composed  of  the  laity. 

3d.  The  objection  I  have  to  the  Methodist  confessional  above  the 
Romish,  is  this :  In  the  former  I  am  required  to  confess  all  my  sins 
of  deed  or  thought  as  particularly  and  rigidly  as  Rome  requires,  to  a 
preacher,  etc. — P.  386. 

Now  look  at  the  Discipline  : 

"The  design  of  our  (band)  meetings  is  to  obey  that  command  of 
God:  'Confess  your  faults  one  to  another,  and  pray  one  for  another, 
that  ye  may  be  healed.' — James  v.  16."    (Dis.,  ed.  1846,  p.  81.) 

Here  are  three  plain  and  palpable  falsehoods,  not  to  say 
wilful  and  malicious,  that  no  man  can  deny,  and  no  man 
could  perpetrate  in  ignorance,  with  the  Methodist  Discipline 
in  his  possession ;  and  Graves  had  it,  for  he  pretends  to  give 
it  as  his  authority  !  Now,  will  the  ^'  Baptist  Publishing  So- 
ciety of  North  Carolina"  admit  that  they  are  "involved  in  a 
great  sin"  in  circulating  this  false,  foul,  and  slanderous  work, 
and  "  take  speedy  steps  to  free  themselves  from  the  guilt,"  as 
they  propose  in  their  challenge  ?     We  shall  see. 

If  the  "  North  Carolina  Publishing  Society"  will  take  the 
trouble  to  turn  to  pages  5B1-2-3  of  Graves's  book,  they  will 
find  a  specimen  of  low,  vulgar,  and  slanderous  ribaldry,  at 
which  Tom  Paine  or  the  most  wicked  of  infidel  persecutors 
of  religion  would  blush!  It  is  a  caricature  of  a  Methodist 
revival  whieh  a  friend  to  Christianity  should  blush  to  counte- 
nance, much  less  to  perpetrate !  He  represents  one  preacher 
as  calling  upon  the  Lord  "to  make  these  sisters  shouting 
happy  right  now/'  another,  with  a  voice  trumpet-toned  over 
all,  cries,  "Fire!  fire!  send  dovrn  fi-re!"  a  third  calls  out 
"Power!  po-wer!  come  in  po-wer !"  Then  follows  "forty 
or  fifty  crying,  screaming,  and  praying,  in  a  sanctified  row." 
And,  to  cap  the  climax  :  "  See  there,  how  those  ministers  are 
locating  them  upon  their  backs,  as  though  religion  was  a 
wedge  to  be  drivtm  in  between  the  shoulder-blades !" 


266  THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

After  his  caricature  of  a  Methodist  revival,  he  ought  to 
have  introduced  the  Baptist  preacher  into  the  same  vicinity, 
some  two  weeks  after  the  close  of  this  meeting,  preaching  to 
the  young  converts,  crying.  Water !  water  !  !  water  ! ! !  shak- 
ing hands  and  singing : 

"Go  read  the  third  of  Matthew — 
Go  read  that  chapter  through : 
It  is  a  guide  to  Christians, 
And  tells  them  what  to  do  !" 

He  ought  to  have  represented  this  stupid,  ignorant,  and 
uneducated  man,  awkward  and  uncouth,  attempting  to  advo- 
cate the  cause  of  Christianity,  but  doing  it  so  badly  as  to 
bring  it  into  disrepute.  After  winning  over  some  by  this 
water  gospel,  he  tells  them  that  they  are  now  on  the  rock, 
Christ ;  that  all  their  future  sins  are  to  be  imputed  to  Christ, 
while  Ms  righteousness  is  to  be  imputed  to  them.  Thus,  they 
may  lie,  cheat,  steal,  and  get  drunk,  and  do  any  other  wicked- 
ness, without  falling  from  grace !  Once,  in  the  Baptist 
Church,  and  under  the  water,  they  are  beyond  the  reach  even 
of  temptation ! 

But  to  the  challenging  committee  of  the  North  Carolina 
Publishing  Society.  I  copy  the  challenge  from  the  ^'Biblical 
Recorder"  of  August  9th,  1855,  published  at  Raleigh  : 

A  CHALLENGE. 

**The  Great  Iron  Wheel"  and  "Orchard's  History  of  the  Baptists," 
recently  published  by  Elder  J.  II.  Graves,  having  been  adopted  for  cir- 
culation by  the  Baptist  Publication  Society  of  North  Carolina,  and  it 
having  come  to  the  knowledge  of  said  Society  that  the  Iron  Wheel 
has  been  pronounced  by  certain  Methodist  ministers,  through  the 
columns  of  the  Richmond  Christian  Advocate,  a  false,  foul,  and  slan- 
derous book — the  members  of  said  Society,  feeling  that  they  are 
charged  with  circulating  falsehoods  and  foul  slanders  against  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  have  made  an  arrangement  with  Elder 
Graves  to  defend  his  book  and  the  North  Carolina  Baptist  Publication 
Society  against  the  charge  specified,  and  appointed  the  undersigned  a 
committee  to  submit  the  following  proposition  first  to  Rev.  Leroy  M. 
Lee,  D.D.,  editor  of  the  Richmond  Christian  Advocate,  and,  in  case 
of  his  declination,  to  others  hereafter  to  be  named. 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  257 

We  propose  that  Elder  Graves  will  meet  Dr.  Lee  in  the  city  of  Ra- 
leigh, at  any  time  that  may  be  agreed  upon  by  the  parties  concerned, 
■when  and  where  all  or  any  of  the  positions  discussed  in  "  The  Great 
Iron  Wheel"  will  be  defended  and  substantiated  in  their  consecutive 
order,  or  in  any  number  of  propositions  so  framed  as  to  embrace  the 
substance  of  the  same. 

On  behalf  of  the  Society,  we  express  our  earnest  desire  that  such  a 
discussion  shall  take  place  as  early  as  practicable.  For,  if  we  are 
lending  our  aid  in  the  circulation  of  a  book  which  is  both  faUe  and 
slanderous,  we  are  certainly  involved  in  great  sin,  and  wish  to  be 
convinced  of  it,  that  we  may  take  speedy  steps  to  free  ourselves  from 
guilt;  and  if  such  is  not  the  character  of  "The  Great  Iron  Wheel," 
we  have  a  right  to  demand  that  we  be  no  longer  held  up  to  public 
scorn  as  the  endorsers  and  circulators  of  falsehood  and  slander. 

We  hope  Dr.  Lee  will  favor  us  with  an  early  reply,  in  order  that  all 
necessary  arrangements  for  a  discussion  may  be  made,  if  he  accepts 
the  proposition,  or  that  its  provisions  may  be  extended  should  he  see 
proper  to  decline. 

JAMES   M'DANIEL,-) 
A.  M'DOWELL,  \   Committee. 

G.  W.  JOHNSTON,    J 
June  18,  1855. 


In  reply  to  this  challenge,  Leroy  M.  Lee,  editor  of  the 
Richmond  Christian  Advocate^  responded  : 

We  copy  the  above  from  the  Biblical  Recorder  of  Raleigh,  N.C.  It 
contains  a  challenge,  not  to  mortal  combat,  "resisting  unto  blood," 
but  to  a  public  discussion  of  the  truth  or  falsity  of  "all  or  any  of 
the  positions  discussed  in  the  'The  Great  Iron  Wheel'  "  book.  Before 
responding  to  this  challenge,  we  have  a  few  words  to  say  to  the  com- 
mittee whose  names  figure  at  the  foot  of  it.  We  know  nothing  of 
them  personally.  They  have  volunteered  to  address  us  publicly,  and 
cannot  object  to  a  reply  in  the  same  way. 

1.  These  gentlemen  act  "on  behalf"  of  the  "Baptist  Publication 
Society  of  North  Carolina."  They  belong  to  that  Society ;  and,  in 
challenging  us,  they  are  acting  under  its  direction  and  by  its  autho- 
rity. 

2.  We  learn  from  their  missive  that  The  Great  Iron  Wheel,  written 
and  published  by  Elder  J.  R.  Graves,  has  "been  adopted  for  circula- 
tion by  the  Baptist  Publication  Society  of  North  Carolina :"  that  the 
book  has  "been  pronounced  by  certain  Methodist  ministers  a  false, 
foul,  and  slanderous  book;"  and  that  "the  members  of  said  Society" 
are  a  little  restive  under,  what  they  will  excuse  us  for  thinking,  the 
justly  merited  charge  of  "circulating  falsehoods  and  foul  slanders 
against  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church." 

3.  That,  in  order  to  justify  themselves,  quiet  their  consciences,  and 
increase  the  circulation  of  the  book,  they  "have  made  an  arrange- 
ment with  Elder  Graves  to  defend  his  book  and  the  North  Carolina 


258  THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

Baptist  Publication  Society  against  the  charge  specified;"  and  hence 
the  desire  to  have  and  the  challenrre  to  a  public  discussion,  addressed 
tirst  to  i/s,  and,  if  we  decline  it,  to  be  tendered  "to  others  hereafter 
to  be  named."  In  tliis  matter  every  one  must  follow  his  own  tastes. 
We  speak  for  ourself:  the  "others"  can  do  the  same. 

We  beg  the  attention  of  the  gentlemen  of  the  committee,  and 
through  them  of  tlic  Baptist  Publication  Society  they  represent  in 
the  matter,  to  the  following,  as  our  reply  to  their  challenge  : 

1.  We  respectfully  submit  that  a  Society,  representing  a  large  and 
influential  body  of  Christians,  engaged  in  publishing  and  circulating 
books  for  the  ostensible  purposes  of  increasing  knowledge  and  doing 
good,  ought,  as  a  first  duty  to  themselves,  and  the  cause  of  truth  and 
true  religion,  in  adopting  a  book  for  circulation,  to  be  well  assured 
of  its  character,  and,  at  least,  of  the  probable  fruits  of  its  circulation. 
This  is  a  dictate  of  Christian  prudence  and  propriety  which  your  So- 
ciety seems,  singularly  enough,  entirely  to  have  overlooked.  The 
anxiety  to  have  the  book  defended  by  its  author  betrays  a  sense  of 
indecent  haste  in  its  adoption.  If  you  examined  the  book,  and 
adopted  it  because  you  were  satisfied  of  its  truthfulness,  and  believed 
that  its  circulation  would  be  a  good  work,  and  do  good  in  North 
Carolina,  you  ought  to  be  satisfied  with  your  determination,  and  the 
reasons  on  which  it  rests.  If  you  did  not  examine  it,  or  if  you  are  now 
doubtful  of  its  character  and  utility,  you  are  involved  in  the  censure 
of  having  acted  unwisely  for  the  Society,  or  wickedly  against  the 
good  character  and  Christian  usefulness  of  your  brethren  in  Christ. 
In  either  case,  it  is  a  questionable  course  to  meet  such  "a  case  of 
conscience"  by  arranging  with  the  author  to  defend  it.  His  interest 
in  the  sales,  no  less  than  in  the  infamy  to  which  a  righteous  popular 
opinion  will  sooner  or  later  consign  his  false  and  mischievous  produc- 
tion, renders  him  too  partial  an  advocate ;  and,  at  least,  subjects  to 
the  suspicion  that,  in  conducting  a  discussion  on  his  own  ti'uthfulness, 
lie  would  proceed  on  the  old  adage,  that  "a  falsehood  well  stuck  to, 
is  better  than  a  truth  badly  told." 

There  is  nothing  in  the  character  of  the  book,  in  our  judgment,  to 
relieve  its  author  of  the  suspicion  that  this  adage  was  the  governing 
motive  and  guiding  principle  in  its  composition. 

2.  Besides,  without  deciding  positively,  we  incline  to  the  opinion 
that  the  ostensible  reason  put  forth  for  this  challenge  is  not  the  real  or 
the  true  one.  The  haste  of  the  Society  in  adopting  the  book,  the 
zeal  for  its  circulation,  and  a  desire  to  augment  the  sale,  both  for  the 
pecuniary  profit  of  the  author  and  the  Society,  and  with  the  hope 
that  any  injury  it  may  do  to  Methodism  will  inure  to  the  benefit  of 
the  Church  whose  "Publication  Society"  so  industriously  circulates 
it,  mingle,  it  is  at  least  probable,  with  the  motives  superinducing  the 
desire  for  a  public  debate  on  its  character  and  merits.  Whatever 
might  be  the  result  of  such  a  discussion,  even  if  an  intelligent  jury 
of  moderators  decided  the  work  to  be  false  and  slanderous,  the  pub- 
licity of  the  discussion  would  enhance  its  sale,  and  what  seems  to  us 
to  be  the  prime  cause  of  seeking  it  would  be  secured.     We  can  sym- 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  259 

pathize  "with  you  as  Christian  gentlemen  when  you  say :  *<  If  we  are 
lending  our  aid  in  the  circulation  of  a  book  which  is  both  false  and 
slanderous,  we  are  certainly  involved  in  great  sin,  and  wish  to  be 
convinced  of  it,  that  we  may  take  speedy  steps  to  free  ourselves  from 
guilt;"  but  we  doubt  the  propriety  of  the  mode  by  which  you  seek 
"to  be  convinced  of  it."  We  could  suggest  "a  more  excellent  way;" 
but  we  are  neither  "lords  of  your  faith,"  nor  "keepers  of  your  con- 
science." "One  is  your  Master,  even  Christ."  By  His  judgment 
you  are  to  stand  or  fall.  Whether  you  sought  His  glory,  and  to 
please  Him,  by  adopting  this  vicious  diatribe  against  Methodism,  you 
can  determine  for  yourselves.  We  doubt  whether  it  entered  into  your 
thoughts :  it  was  abusive  of  Methodism,  that  was  enough  for  you :  it 
will  pay,  that  was  enough  for  the  Society  and  the  author.  As  an 
opinion  of  ours — only  an  opinion — you  "ore  certainly  involved  in 
great  sin,"  and  should  "free  yourselves  from  the  guilt"  with  all 
speed. 

3.  If  "Elder  J.  R.  Graves,"  or  either  one  or  all  of  j'ou,  gentlemen, 
were  to  publish  and  circulate  the  most  atrocious  falsehoods  and 
calumnies  against  our  personal  character  and  reputation,  it  would 
never  enter  into  our  thoughts  to  meet  you  in  a  public  discussion  on 
the  truth  of  your  statements.  A  proposition  on  your  part  for  such  a 
discussion  would  be  justly  regarded,  by  all  right-minded  men,  as  the 
superaddition  of  a  deliberate  insult  to  a  gross  outrage  and  injury. 
Now,  "Elder  J.  R.  Graves,"  and  yourselves,  gentlemen,  and  "The 
Baptist  Publication  Society  of  North  Carolina,"  as  his  "aiders  and 
abettors,"  have  assailed  our  character  and  reputation  as  a  Methodist, 
by  publishing  and  circulating  a  series  of  false  and  slanderous  state- 
ments, deliberately  made  by  the  one  party,  and  voluntarily  circulated 
by  the  other.  That  you  and  your  Society  feel  the  indelicacies  and 
difficulties  of  your  position,  as  abettors  in  a  false  and  slanderous 
attack  on  Methodism,  its  ministers  and  members,  is  not  surprising; 
and  is,  indeed,  gratifying,  as  a  proof  that  your  religious  sensibilities 
are  superior  to  your  official  sagacity,  and  not  yet  hardened  by  the 
desire  of  gain  from  the  workings  of  your  ponderous  Iron  Wheel. 
But  to  interpose  for  your  relief,  in  the  way  you  suggest,  is  asking  too 
much  of  our  self-respect  and  good  sense.  We  wish  you  an  honorable 
escape  from  your  embarrassing  position.  But,  in  the  way  you  pro- 
pose, we  would  not  lend  the  strength  of  our  little  finger  to  aid  your 
efforts. 

4.  As  the  occasion  serves,  we  desire  your  attention  to  a  few  remarks 
on  the  subject  of  popular  discussions  of  the  kind  to  which  you  chal- 
lenge us.  We  have  no  affinities  for  such  modes  of  settling  questions 
involving  religious  truth ;  and  confess  to  a  very  considerable  repug- 
nance to  "such  doings."  How  we  should  get  along  in  one,  we  know 
not,  as  we  have  never  "tried  our  hand."  Our  maiden  sword,  if  we 
have  a  sword,  is  yet  unfleshed.  It  is  likely  to  remain  so.  We  can 
perceive  no  propriety  in  these  public  discussions ;  and  believe  very 
little  for  truth  or  godliness  is  ever  accomplished  by  them.  As  feats 
of  intellectual  gladiatorship,  they  attract  a  gaping  crowd  of  those 


260  THE   GREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

•Nvho  admire  the  pugnacious  combatants,  or  who  care  nothing  for  them 
or  the  subject  tliey  are  to  fight  about,  and  who  are  only  a  little  less 
interested  than  they  would  be  in  "seeing  the  elephant"  and  "stirring 
up  the  monkeys"  in  a  menagerie.  More  are  attracted  by  the  fuss  or 
the  fun  of  the  thing,  than  by  regard  for  the  principles  discussed,  or  the 
real  religious  interests  involved.  Besides,  they  settle  nothing;  per- 
haps never  induce  any  one  to  change  an  opinion;  and  almost  invaria- 
bly engender  strifes  and  debates.  We  look  on  them  as  about  equally 
disastrous  to  religion  and  discreditable  to  the  parties.  If  others 
choose  to  make  such  spectacles  of  themselves,  they  must  follow  their 
own  bent.  Our  tastes  lead  us  in  another  direction.  But  if  any  "set 
of  circumstances"  could  seduce  us  into  such  an  arena,  we  can  con- 
ceive of  no  possible  circumstances  that  can  induce  us  to  accept  a 
challenge  to  meet  the  Great  Iron  Wheel  man!  We  care  to  say  very 
little  of  its  author.  We  only  know  him  in  his  book:  that  jve  regard 
as  a  tissue  of  deliberate  falsehood  and  malicious  calumny,  written 
with  a  cold,  callous,  calculating  selfishness  of  purpose  to  make  money 
by  defaming  a  community  of  Christian  people.  Discuss  that  book 
with  its  author  I  Pardon  us,  gentlemen,  if  we  suggest  that  your  zeal 
for  "The  Baptist  Publication  Society  of  North  Carolina"  has  blinded 
you  to  the  instincts  which  always  govern  upright  and  honorable 
minds. 

The  ^^  Publishing  Society"  replied  to  Dr.  Lee,  and  charged 
him  with  hacking  out  from  the  proposed  discussion.  Dr.  Lee 
replied : 

There  was  no  backing  in  the  case :  we  turned  right  round  and 
walked  away — just  as  we  would  if  we  were  to  find  a  skunk  confront- 
ing us  in  walking  through  a  forest.  This  is  the  plain  truth,  and  we 
shall  oflFer  no  apology  to  the  committee  for  stating  it;  besides,  we 
leave  them  to  determine,  between  themselves  and  their  champion,  as 
to  the  subject  of  the  figure  and  its  appropriateness.  A  celebrated 
editress  of  Washington  City,  returning  from  one  of  her  trips  to  the 
South,  passed  through  Charlotte  county,  Va.  The  stage  was  filled 
with  passengers;  and  while  stopping  at  a  roadside  trough  to  water 
the  horses,  John  Randolph,  of  Roanoke,  rode  up,  with  the  same 
kindly  object  for  his  own  steed.  The  female  in  the  stage  recognizing 
him,  addressed  him  with,  "How  do  you  do,  Mr.  Randolph?  I  am 
very  glad,  indeed,  to  meet  with  you."  "  I  do  not  know  you,  madam," 
was  the  shrill  and  chilling  reply  of  the  cynic.     "  Not  know  me!    Why, 

I'm  Mrs.  ,  of  Washington!"     Looking  earnestly  at  her  for  one 

brief  moment,  gathering  his  reins  shortly  up,  he  cried,  ^^phumphP^ 
and,  lashing  his  horse,  galloped  away,  elongating  and  elevating  his 
voice  above  the  clatter  of  his  abrupt  departure.  We  walked  right  off 
from  the  challenge  with  sensations  of  disgust  quite  as  intense,  if  not 
as  strongly  expressed.  We  do  not  care,  now,  to  say  more  concerning 
the  challenge,  or  the  strictures  of  the  committee  on  our  reply  to  it. 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  261 

Rev.  Dr.  Deems,  of  the  North  Carolina  Conference,  comes 
next  in  order.     Here  is  his  reply  : 

Greensboro',  N.  C,  July  21,  1855. 
Rev.  Messrs.  3r Daniel,  ATDoicell,  and  Johnston  : 
Gentlemen : — 

The  Biblical  Ptecorder  of  July  12  has  just  been  placed  in  my  hands, 
and  I  have  read  with  astonishment  the  degrading  proposition  yoM 
make  me.  I  profoundly  regret  any  act  of  my  life  which  may  have 
led  you  to  beheve  that  you  could  induce  me  to  become  YOUR  sca- 
venger. 

Yours,  etc., 

CHAS.  F.  DEEMS. 

Rev.  Dr.  Smith,  President  of  Randolph  Macon  College, 
seems  to  have  treated  the  challenge  with  silent  contempt,  as 
he  did  not  reply  to  the  challenging  committee.  He  left  them 
alone  in  their  glory,  or  shame,  to  "  pick  the  dunghill's  spoil 
for  bread,"  or  fame,  whichever  they  are  seeking  to  turn  up, 
by  delving  in  the  feculent  pages  of  Graves's  infamous  book. 
These  three  ministers  rank  among  the  most  distinguished  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South  :  literary  gentlemen, 
able  in  debate.  But  they  all  three  seem  to  have  acted  upon 
the  principle — by  the  way,  a  very  correct  one — that  persons 
who  undertake  dirti/  work  from  the  love  of  it,  ought  not  to 
ask  decent  men  to  help  them ! 

One  of  the  members  of  this  committee,  Mr.  M'Dowell,  I 
understand,  at  the  time  of  his  displaying  this  eager  zeal  to 
defame  the  Methodist  Church,  its  members  and  ministers,  had 
a  flaming  school  in  Raleigh.  The  other  Churches  who  pa- 
tronized it  withdrew,  and  my  information  is,  he  was  compelled 
to  wind  it  up  !  So  much  for  his  officiousness  in  adopting  and 
circulating  a  foul,  false,  and  slanderous  production.  Such 
conduct  ought  to  have  placed  him  beyond  the  pale  of  Method- 
ist patronage  or  courtesy.  But  if  the  gentleman  choose  to 
act  as  a  hod-carrier  for  Elder  Graves,  let  him  carry  on — it  is 
only  a  matter  of  taste  ! 


262  THE    (JRKAT    lilUN    WHEEL    EXAMINED. 

The  truth  is,  however,  that  not  one  of  the  distinguished 
gentlemen  named  in  this  challenge  could,  with  propriety,  have 
gone  into  a  discussion  with  the  licentious  editor  of  the  "Ten- 
nessee Baptist" — a  scurvy  editor,  and  a  blotch  upon  the 
Christian  community  in  which  he  lives.  He  has  tried,  time 
and  again,  to  obtain  an  endorsement  of  himself  and  his  paper 
by  his  own  denomination  in  Middle  Tennessee,  where  he  re- 
sides and  is  best  known.  lie  attempted  it  in  Murfreesboro', 
and  failed !  He  attempted  it  in  Winchester,  at  a  General  As- 
sociation, and  failed.  Not  only  so,  but  he  was  there  told,  to 
his  face,  on  the  floor  of  the  Association,  by  Dr.  Willtam  P. 
Jones,  a  practising  physician  of  Nashville,  and  a  highly  re- 
spectable member  of  the  Baptist  Church,  that  he  was  not  a 
man  of  truth,  and  that  he,  (the  Doctor,)  who  had  been  a  close 
observer  of  his  conduct,  had  never  seen  him  acting  out  a 
Christian  spirit,  or  promoting  the  cause  of  God  by  his 
course ! 

The  subject  of  endorsing  his  Christian  character  had  been 
under  consideration  some  time  last  fall,  at  Nashville ;  and  in 
October,  while  I  was  in  the  city,  the  final  action  was  had,  and 
that  Church,  with  which  he  worships,  and  where  he  has  re- 
sided for  years,  refused  to  endorse  him,  and  this  action  is  now 
a  matter  of  record  in  that  city  !  What  a  commentary  upon 
his  twelve  years  of  toil,  of  warfare,  preaching,  prayer,  and 
praise !  Certainly  the  private  life  and  domestic  relations  of 
this  man  Graves  are  a  sealed  book  to  the  "  North  Carolina 
Publishing  Society;''  otherwise,  they  are  no  better  than  he 
is,  and  have  justly  subjected  themselves  to  the  censure  of 
the  poet  Cowper : 

The  man  that  dares  traduce,  because  he  can 
With  safety  to  himself,  is  not  a  man. 

From  week  to  week,  and  for  years,  his  dirty  paper  has 
teemed  with  defamation  and  lying  slanders,  of  the  quick  and 


THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED.       2G-> 

dead,  male  and  female.  It  was  in  the  month  of  September, 
1853,  just  before  the  meeting  of  the  Legislature,  that  an  ex- 
member  of  Congress  and  an  able  lawyer  followed  him  round 
the  Square,  until  he  found  him  at  a  drug-store  occupied  by  a 
member  of  the  Baptist  Church,  and  there  and  then  did  chas- 
ti.^e  and  publicly  cane  the  aforesaid  J.  11.  Graves — a  scene 
which  the  reader  will  herewith  find  represented  by  an  appro- 
priate engraving!  This  was  for  slandering  a  female  of  re- 
putable standing,  through  the  editorial  columns  of  his  vile 
paper,  to  the  detriment  of  good  morals,  and  in  violation  of 
the  decencies  of  private  life  I  This  caning  of  the  scavenger 
met  with  the  approbation  of  an  outraged  and  insulted  com- 
munity; and  when  the  Grand  Jury  convened,  they  refused  to 
find  a  bill  against  the  honorable  gentleman  who  thrashed 
him — saying,  thereby,  that  he  served  him  right !  And  this 
day,  every  good  citizen  of  Nashville,  without  reference  to  any 
artificial  distinction  of  party,  condemns  the  course  of  Graves 
in  this  matter,  and  believes  that  it  was  right  to  make  him 
sensible  of  the  obloquy  he  incurred,  by  ^'  apostolic  blows  and 
knocks,"  well  laid  on  upon  that  memorable  occasion  !  This 
is  the  man  who  boasts  of  his  arduous  labors  in  the  cause  of 
God,  and  of  his  toils  and  sufi"erings  for  the  gospel's  sake ! 
His  professed  consciousness  of  a  well-spent  life  is  in  fact  a 
living  lie  !     Look  at  his  deeds  ! 

In  the  ^'Western  Recorder"  for  October  3, 1855,  a  leading 
Baptist  journal,  I  find  this  statement  in  reference  to  Graves's 
Church  troubles  in  Nashville,  which  will  not  be  without  in- 
terest to  those  who  are  aware  of  his  troubles  there,  and  his 
former  controversies  at  Bowling-Green  in  Kentucky : — 

As  to  Brother  Graves  and  his  Church  troubles,  all  we  know  of  them 
is  the  mere  statement  of  others,  that  there  were  charges  against  him  in 
his  Church  at  Nashville.  We  have  never  published  any  thing  about 
him  or  these  charges,  nor  have  we,  that  we  recollect,  ever  even  men- 
tioned his  name  in  a  private  letter  to  any  one  at  Nashville  dui-ing  our 


264  THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED. 

lives;  nor  do  we  know  nor  have  we  ever  inciuii-ed  what  bcciimc  of  the 
prosccufion  aijainst  him.  Had  wc  been  as  vigilant  in  collating  and 
publishing  all  the  Bapti.«t  incidents  of  Ncvi/iville  and  Bowling- Green  as 
the  "  Tennessee  Baptist"  has  those  of  Louisville,  we  no  doubt  might 
have  recited  quite  as  many  interesting  little  episodes ! 

This  Bowling-  Green  allusion  is  a  hard  hit  by  the  ^'  Recorder !" 
Graves  visited  Bowling-Green  a  few  years  ago,  and  held  a 
meeting  in  the  Baptist  church,  and  his  abuse  of  other  sects 
was  so  low,  and  his  conduct  so  degrading,  that  a  Baptist  lady 
remarked  that  if  any  one  would  hold  him,  she  would  cowhide 
him!  IIev.  J.  S.  Scoble,  of  the  Methodist  Church,  took 
him  up  and  exposed  his  conduct,  through  a  public  journal, 
most  effectually.  Among  other  things,  he  set  forth  some  of 
the  many  blasphemous  sayings  of  Graves;  such  as — '^Of  all 
the  damnable  heresies  in  the  black  catalogue  which  has  be- 
fouled the  fame  of  Christianity,  infant  baptism  is  the  most 
damnable.  If  other  heresies  have  damned  their  thousands, 
this  has  damned  its  tens  of  thousands.'^ 

Again,  he  said  at  the  baptizing :  ''  That  the  mark  of  the 
beast,  as  mentioned  in  Revelation,  which  brought  the  curse 
of  God  on  some,  was  the  baptism  of  the  Pedobaptists,  received 
by  pouring." 

But  to  return  to  the  "Western  Recorder's"  charge  of  dif- 
ficulties in  Nashville!  The  "Tennessee  Baptist,"  of  which 
Graves  is  editor,  thus  replies  on  the  20th  of  October : — 

But  this  committee  denies  that  they  are  in  league  with  a  disaffected 
brother  or  brethren  in  this  latitude,  through  whom  they  gather  in- 
cidents to  publish.  We  very  respectfully  and  seriously  ask  them  from 
whom  they  learned  that  we  were  under  charges  in  our  Church? !  Did 
the  committee  visit  the  Southern  Convention,  or  did  they  learn  it  from 
some  who  did  go  ?  W' ill  these  gentlemen  inform  us  ?  We  demand  the 
names :  we  have  a  right  to  them.     Can  we  get  them  ? 

The  reference  to  a  ^^prosecution  against  hiyn"  was  an  in- 
dictment for  libel  in  Henderson  county,  Tennessee,  tried  in 


THE   GREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  265 

the  Circuit  Court  at  Lexington,  where  damages  were  obtained 
against  him  to  the  amount  of  $7500.  It  was  for  a  charge 
of  stealing  made  against  a  respectable  Methodist  preacher, 
and  the  clerk  of  the  Circuit  Court  for  that  county. 

In  his  paper  for  October  20,  1855,  Mr.  Graves  tells  his 
Baptist  brethren  of  the  corps  editorial,  Messrs.  Caldwell, 
Taylor,  Brannin,  and  Buck — some  of  whom  had  published  his 
being  indicted  in  this  case,  and  others  had  spoken  of  it  in  no 
very  complimentary  terms  to  Graves  —  that  explanations  of 
the  affair  had  repeatedly  been  given  in  his  paper ;  and  that 
he  was  not  the  writer  of  the  slanderous  article  I  True,  he  has 
repeatedly  told  this  story  in  his  paper,  but  he  has  failed  to 
tell  that  he  tried  to  justify  the  villainous  publication,  by  de- 
fending the  suit  in  court,  thereby  aggravating  the  case  !  And 
when  convicted  in  the  Circuit  Court,  he  appealed  to  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  State,  held  in  Jackson  in  the  spring  of 
1855,  and  there  had  the  $7500  of  damages  fastened  upon 
him  !     What  followed  next  ?     We  shall  see. 

In  May,  1855,  just  after  the  Supreme  Court  had  decided 
against  him,  he  goes  to  the  Register's  oflSce  of  Davidson 
county,  and  mortgages  all  his  effects  away ;  whether  to  avoid 
this  $7500  damages  and  large  costs,  the  reader  can  judge  for 
himself.  I  have  examined  the  record,  and  find  his  convey- 
ances registered  in  Book  xxii.,  and  on  pages  58,  59,  and  62. 
llis  first  mortgage  is  to  his  unoihev,  Louisa  Graves,  the  joint 
work  of  himself  and  partner,  Marls.  The  next  conveyance 
is  Graves  &  Marks  to  A.  B.  Shankland,  page  59.  Then  fol- 
low two  cases,  J.  R.  Crraves  to  "W.  P.  Marks,  pages  59  and 
62.  That  the  reader  may  at  once  see  the  design  of  this  ^^hot 
haste"  in  getting  rid  of  all  his  effects,  I  will  be  somewhat 
explicit  in  stating  them. 

First  case.  May,  1855.    Sells  vajuable  land  in  the  vicinity 
of  Nashville,  to  his  aged  mother,  Louisa  Graves  ! 
12 


266  THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED. 

Second.  Mortgages  to  ]^.  Furguson  a  power -press,  with 
all  the  fixtures  connected  therewith  :  one  steam-engine,  used 
in  the  office  of  the  ''  Tennessee  Baptist :"  also,  all  the  type, 
cases,  stands,  etc.,  and  all  the  accounts  due  to  said  office. 
This  mortgage  includes  the  following  publications  likewise : 
"The  Great  Iron  Wheel,"  "Orchard's  History  of  Foreign 
Baptists,"  and  '^Stewart  on  Baptism;"  also,  a  one-lwrse  ba- 
rouche and  harness  !  This  conveyance  is  dated  May  26, 1855, 
which  was  just  after  the  Supreme  Court  had  decided  against 
him  at  Jackson  ! 

Third.  The  third  case  is  dated  May  28,  1855,  and  is  a 
mortgage,  by  Graves  k  Marks  to  Shankland,  of  the  same  ar- 
ticles mentioned  in  the  second  case,  excepting  only  the  publica- 
tions named.  He  seemed  to  have  thought  that  one  convey- 
ance would  do  to  bind  a  set  of  vile  publications  not  in  demand 
among  those  to  whom  fines  and  costs  were  due ;  but  a  power- 
press,  a  steam-engine,  and  a  barouche  and  harness,  it  was 
deemed  necessaiy  to  "  rebainize''  in  the  office  of  the  register, 
as  they  could  be  used  profitably  by  all  parties  and  sects ! 

Fourth.  This  case  is  one  of  singular  interest,  being  a  mort- 
gage from  J.  R.  Graves,  to  W.  P.  Marks,  of  his  private  li- 
brary, amounting  to  500  volumes,  and  the  one-horse  barouche 
and  harness  once  more.  This  is  dated  May  28,  1855,  the 
same  day  and  date  of  its  conveyance — I  mean  the  harouclie, 
to  Shankland,  and  tuo  days  after  its  conveyance  to  B.  Fur- 
guson ! 

Fifth.  This  is  a  case  of  bargain  and  sale,  and  is  so  re- 
corded. J.  R.  Graves  sells  to  "\V.  P.  Marks  his  half  of  three 
lots  in  Edgefield,  for  which  said  Marks  executes  his  note  to 
Graves  for  one  thousand  dollars,  THREE  YEARS  AFTER  DATE, 
and  retains  no  lien.  This  is  the  more  remarkable,  as  Edge- 
field, just  across  the  Wire  Suspension  Bridge,  is  a  new 
town  growing  up  on  the  Kentucky  Railroad,  where  real  estate 


THE   GREAT   IRON    Vv'HEEL   EXA3IINED.  267 

is  increasing  every  day  in  value,  and  must  still  increase ! 
Why  sell  such  property  upon  such  terms,  and  at  so  low  a 
rate?  Why,  that  unfeeling  clerk  of  the  Henderson  County 
Court  might  make  an  execution  upon  the  property.  Ah,  yes, 
circumstances  alter  cases ! 

Sixth,  I  will  close  my  account  of  his  financial  operations 
with  a  still  more  palpable  case  of  design,  the  proof  of  which 
is  to  be  had  in  the  Register's  ofl&ce.  It  is  the  case  of  a  note 
of  hand,  payable  to  W.  P.  Marks,  ''for  the  use  and  benefit  of 
Louisa  Graves,''  his  mother,  bearing  date  March  23,  1854. 
Circumstances  prove  that  he  had  redeemed  the  note,  although 
provided  for  in  the  mortgage.  He  had  out  a  bundle  of  papers 
in  the  Register's  office,  and  accidentally  let  this  note  fall 
under  the  edge  of  the  table,  without  intending  to  exhibit  it ! 
The  Register  afterwards  found  it — kept  it  two  or  three  months 
before  he  met  with  Graves,  when  he  handed  it  to  him  !  Does 
any  one  suppose  for  a  moment  that  he  owed  his  helpless  old 
mother  any  thing,  who  was  living  with  him,  and  for  whom  he 
was  providing,  as  was  his  duty  ?  How  came  he  to  hold  the 
note,  and  not  Marks  ?  The  case  is  too  palpable  for  further 
comments ! 

Now,  is  not  this  man  Graves  a  pretty  disciple  to  set  him- 
self up  for  the  general  reformation  of  men  and  manners  !  He 
write  whole  chapters  of  abuse  against  Mr.  Wesley,  for  having 
been  indicted  at  Savannah  by  an  ill-natured  family,  when 
Wesley  demanded  a  trial  at  ''  six  successive  courts  !"  Wesley 
gave  to  the  Church  and  the  poor  all  he  made,  and  died  a  poor 
man.  Not  so  with  Graves  :  he  does  not  give  away,  but  hides 
behind  the  records  of  the  Register's  office  all  he  possesses. 
Like  the  lurking,  midnight  resurrectionist,  he  haunts  the 
charnel-house,  and  drags  forth  the  mutilated  memory  of  de- 
parted worth,  to  mock  and  slander  I  Mean  wretch  !  not  only 
is  his  sordid  soul  hardened  against  the  humanizing  sentiment  of 


268  THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

speaking  no  evil  of  the  pious  chad,  but,  hyena-like,  he  defiles 
tlie  sanctuary  he  has  profaned,  by  his  huge  financial  exploits ! 
Verily  his  licentious  career,  his  malicious  and  false  publica- 
tions, are  doomed  to  receive  the  retribution  he  has  so  stoutly 
defied ! 


THE  GREAT  IRON   WHEEL  EXAMINED.  269 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

Graves's  reckless  slander  of  Rev.  F.  A.  Owen — Falsehood  in  reference 
to  a  debate  with  Chapman — Cornered  in  both  cases  and  made  to 
square  out — "  Christian  Magazine"  vs.  Graves — The  Baptist  "West- 
ern Recorder"  vs.  Graves — A  Correspondent  of  the  "South-western 
Baptist"  vs.  Graves — "  New  Orleans  Weekly  Baptist  Chronicle" 
vs.  Graves  —  Professor  Duncan,  pastor  of  the  New  Orleans  Bap- 
tist Church,  vs.  Graves — "  Knoxville  Baptist  Watchman"  vs.  Graves 
— Scriptural  advice  to  Graves  and  his  understrikers  1 

The  conduct  of  Graves  for  years  past  has  been  characterized 
by  a  degree  of  recklessness,  slander,  and  falsehood,  which  shows, 
clear  as  demonstration,  that  he  does  not  care  whether  he 
speaks  the  truth  or  its  opposite.  What  an  example  he  is  of 
ministerial  propriety  !  What  a  stab  his  conduct  is  to  our  holy 
religion ! 

To  illustrate  the  character  of  the  man  more  completely,  I 
will  show  what  he  has  been  guilty  of  on  different  occasions. 
Rev.  Francis  A.  Owen,  at  present  one  of  the  Book  Agents 
for  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  residing  in  the 
vicinity  of  Nashville,  was,  in  1852,  the  editor  of  the  Mem- 
phis AND  Arkansas  Christian  Advocate.  Mr.  Owen  is 
a  native  of  Virginia,  and  I  have  known  him  intimately  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century;  and  a  more  honorable,  high-minded 
Christian  gentleman  I  never  knew.  His  character  never 
had  a  stain  upon  it,  nor  were  his  piety  and  integrity  ever 
called  in  question  among  those  who  knew  him.  While  he 
conducted  the  "Advocate'^  at  Memphis,  he  passed  unnoticed 
the  frequently  repeated  attacks  of  the  vile  editor  of  the 
'* Tennessee   Baptist,'^    both   personal   and   otherwise.      His 


270  THE   GREAT   IRON   AVHEEL   EXAMINED. 

friends  understood  well  the  cause  of  his  silence :  he  did 
uot  regard  Graves  as  a  gentleman,  and  would  not  stoop  to  a 
controversy  with  him.  Graves,  knowing  the  reason  of  his 
declining  any  war  with  him,  and  that  he  viewed  him  as  a  re- 
probate to  the  editorial  profession,  determined  in  his  malice 
to  assail  Owen;  and,  accordingly,  in  the  ''Tennessee  Baptist" 
of  x\pril  24th  of  that  year,  assailed  him  in  this  false,  slan- 
derous, and  cowardly  language  : — 

We  say  to  Mr.  Owen,  and  every  other  editor  or  enemy,  we  are  will- 
ing for  our  character  to  be  investigated  any  day ;  and  we  challenge 
him  or  any  other  man  to  stain  it  with  one  foul  blot — to  darken  it  with 
a  shade. 

We  never  drew  the  will  of  dying  men  or  women,  in  which  we  were 
made  guardian,  the  money  to  remain  in  our  hands  for  ten  or  twenty 
years  without  interest ! 

We  have  heard  of  an  Owen  that  did  ! 

Now,  the  application  of  this  foul  and  slanderous  insinuation 
to  Kev.  F.  A.  Owen,  of  the  "Memphis  Advocate, ''  and  now 
of  the  Methodist  Publishing  House  at  Nashville,  involved  a 
wilful  slander;  and  when  he  came  to  meet  it,  Graves  hacked 
square  out  of  it.  It  was  false  in  every  particular,  from  be- 
ginning to  end,  and  no  word  or  syllable  of  it  ever  was  true, 
Owen  having  written  no  will — having  been  no  such  guardian — 
having  had  no  such  moneys  in  his  hands,  at  any  period  of  his 
life.  He  drove  the  lying  editor  of  the  ''Tennessee  Baptist" 
to  the  wall ;  and,  to  avoid  a  prosecution,  he  abandoned  the 
slanderous  charge,  and,  as  I  have  already  said,  bached  square 
out  of  his  daring  lie  ! 

And  still  another  case  !  In  1852,  after  Graves  had 
discussed  the  subject  of  baptism  with  Rev.  James  L.  Chap- 
man, of  the  Methodist  Church,  at  Lexington,  in  Henderson 
county,  Tennessee,  Graves  published  in  his  paper,  in  sub- 
stance, that  Mr.  Chapman,  in  that  debate,  admitted  that  our 
Saviour  was  baptized  by  immersion  in  Jordan,  by  John  the 


THE   GREAT   IRON    V/HEEL   EXAMINED.  271 

Baptist.     This  falsehood  led  to  the  publication  of  the  follow- 
ing certificates  in  the  '^  Memphis  Christian  Advocate  :" — 

We,  the  undersigned,  do  hereby  certify  that  we  were  in  attendance, 
some  of  us  all,  and  some  part,  of  the  time  during  the  debate  between 
Rev.  J.  L.  Chapman  and  J.  K,  Graves,  at  Lexington,  in  the  summer 
of  1851,  and  that  we  dkfinctli/  understood  Mr.  C.  as  emphatically  de- 
nying the  immersion  of  Jesus  Christ ;  nor  did  he  use  any  expression, 
by  a  fair  and  just  construction,  that  could  be  made  to  favor  the  idea 
of  his  immersion ;  for  this  was  one  of  the  points  against  which  ho 
directed  his  arguments. 

Mr.  Graves,  closing  the  debate,  did  taunt  Mr.  C.  with  the  admis- 
sion, to  which  Mr.  C.  made  no  reply,  not  because  of  the  truth  of 
Mr.  G.'s  remarks,  but  because  the  truth  was  so  manifest  to  the 
audience  that  it  needed  none. 

J.  B.  Wadley,  D.  0.  N.  Wadley, 

James  Story,  F.  M.  Story, 

G.  H.  Buck,  Thomas  Fesmire, 

J.  G.  Warren,  Ransom  Cunningham, 

Rev.  R.  S.  Reeves,     A.  T.  Johnson, 
Clinton  Brigance,     Alfred  ^Middleton, 
R.  B.  Jones,  Jarrett  Taylor, 

John  Brooks,  John  T.  Cavness. 

H.  McClamrock, 

I  was  present  all  the  time,  and  heard  every  word  of  the  abovo 
debate.  Mr.  C.  said,  for  the  sake  of  "argument,"  he  would  admit 
that  Christ  waded  into  the  water  up  to  his  waist,  ''yea,  he  might 
have  gone  in  up  to  his  arm-pits;"'  but  even  then  he  was  baptized 
"with,"  etc.,  emphasizing  the  word.  Mr.  C.  made  no  admission  of 
"immersion"  in  the  case.  J.  W.  G.  Jones. 

Lexington,  May,  1852. 

I  was  not  present  at  the  close  of  the  debate  between  Mr.  Chapman 
and  Mr.  Graves :  but  during  the  time  I  attended,  I  did  not  hear  any 
remark  of  Mr.  Chapman's  calculated  to  leave  an  impression  upon  any 
of  the  audience  that  Christ  was  baptized  by  immersion. 

Wm.  a.  Warren, 

Lexington,  May  26, 1852. 

And  yet  another  document  !  The  following  article  i.s 
from  the  "Christian  Magazine,"  of  1852 — a  religious 
periodical  published  and  edited  by  a  Campbellite  preacher  at 
Nashville.  It  shows  in  what  light  the  editor  of  the  Tennessee 
Baptist  is  viewed  at  home — not  by  Pedobaptists,  but  by  an 
advocate  of  immersion,  and  one  who  is  utterly  opposed  to 


272       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

infant  haj)fism.     Hear  what  this  editor  says  of  the  low  per 
Bonal  abuse  and  unchristiau  spirit  of  Graves  : 

The  Tennessee  Baptist. — We  publish  the  article  below  with  regret, 
and  would  not  consent  to  it  but  tluit  good  brethren,  upon  the  gi-ound 
that  persons  unacquainted  with  Mr.  Graves,  and  the  reckless  char- 
acter of  his  assertions  and  editorials,  may  be  misled  by  our  silence. 
We  have  for  years  been  constrained,  reluctantly,  to  look  upon  the 
"  Tennessee  Baptist"  as  a  reproach  to  the  editorial  profession,  and 
never  felt  ourselves  warranted  in  noticing  any  thing  that  might  appear 
in  its  columns.  Nothing  that  can  appear  in  it,  as  it  is  now  conducted, 
could  excite  our  resentment.  There  is  )iot  a  sheet  in  the  land,  either 
political  or  religious,  that  we  do  not  regard  as  being  under  the  con- 
trol of  higher,  more  decorous  and  honorable  principles  than  those 
which  seem  to  dictate  many  of  its  editorials  and  communications. 
To  the  article  to  which  Brother  Howard  replies  below,  did  we  feel 
called  upon  to  notice  it  at  all,  we  could  only  say  of  it  that  it  is  inde- 
cent and  slanderous  ;  but  yielding  to  the  judgment  of  others,  we  admit 
it  and  the  reply.  The  Tennessee  Baptist  has  been  reckless  enough  to 
state  that  our  marriages  were  illegal ;  that  the  property  of  our  meet- 
ing-house was  fraudulently  obtained,  and  has  made  sundry  similar 
unfounded  declarations.  With  a  paper  that  could  unblushingly  pub- 
lish such  statements,  we  can  have  no  controversy. 

For  Mr.  G.  and  his  brethren  we  do  not  entertain  an  unkind  feeling. 
For  his  course  as  an  editor  of  a  religious  journal  we  can  have  no 
fellowship ;  and  common  decency  forbids  that  we  should  notice  the 
often-corrected  and  now  stolid  slanders  he  chooses  to  publish  against 
the  community  we  have  the  honor  to  be  associated  with.  To  his 
frequent  and  violent  provocations,  we  consider  it  more  noble  to  oppose 
forbearance  than  contest — preferring  rather  to  endure  all  the  injury 
he  can  inflict,  than  to  contend  with  a  wrong-doer  so  apparently  desti- 
tute of  common  candor  and  decency.  He  is  at  perfect  liberty,  as  we 
stated  years  since,  to  say  any  thing  of  us  he  may  please ;  and  our 
only  hope  for  him  is  that  he  may  yet  see  the  error  of  his  way,  seek 
the  change  of  his  heart,  from  what  it  has  appeared  for  many  months, 
to  the  love  and  approbation  of  truth,  decency,  and  we  would  say 
charity,  but  we  fear  it  is  too  great  a  virtue  to  command  his  efforts  for 
many  years  to  come.  J.  B.  F. 

One  more  of  the  same  sort  !  The  Louisville  "  Western 
Recorder/'  a  Baptist  journal  now  before  me,  dated  September 
26,  1855,  published  and  edited  by  a  committee  of  Baptist 
clergymen,  to  wit — '^Associate  Editors  :  S.  W.  Lynd,  A.  W. 
La  Rue,  A.  D.  Sears,  Wm.  M.  Pratt,  L.  Fletcher" — thus 
takes  off  Graves,  for  his  unmanly  assault  upon  one  of  the 
former  editors  of  that  paper : 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  273 

'*CooL  AND  INDICATIVE." — Under  this  caption  the  Tennessee  Bap- 
tist, in  speaking  of  Brother  Ford's  name  being  withdrawn  from  the 
list  of  editors  in  the  Recorder,  says:  "  Did  Prof.  Farnam's  letter  take 
effect  upon  Brother  Ford  ?  We  think  the  decapitation  and  the  silence 
indicative."  We  have  intentionally  passed  in  silence  the  msLuy  false 
insinuations  made  in  the  Tennessee  Baptist  against  us,  a  committee 
conducting  the  Recorder ;  but  are  unwilling  that  a  brother  should  be 
assailed  through  us.  There  was  no  decapitation  in  the  case.  Brother 
Ford  having  pmxhased  and  become  the  sole  proprietor  of  the  Reposi- 
tory, voluntarily  withdrew  his  name  from  the  list  of  editors  to  the 
Recorder,  with  perfect  good-will  on  both  sides ;  and  will,  we  hope, 
convince  his  Baptist  readers  that  he  is  not  "decapitated,"  and  cannot 
be,  even  by  the  little  garroting  machine  at  Nashville.  The  editor's 
caption  to  such  editorials  should  read,  Cool  and  Vindictive.  Then  all 
will  understand  him. 

Graves  published,  in  his  paper,  that  the  ^'Kecorder"  had 
been  influenced  by  Camphellite  money  in  its  course  !  To  this 
charge  of  bribery  and  corruption,  the  ^' Recorder'^  of  October 
3,  1855,  replies  : 

How  these  things  come  wc  cannot  tell,  but  we  fear  brothers  Pendle- 
ton and  Graves  permit  our  enemies  to  poison  their  minds  against  us 
unwarrantably;  for  every  reader  of  the  Tennessee  Baptist  has  seen 
how  familiar  its  editors  and  correspondents  profess  to  be  with  the 
affairs  of  the  Louisville  Baptists  at  large,  and  the  Recorder  and  its 
Committee  in  particular.  Do  such  things  look  like  sustaining  the 
friendly  relations  of  the  papers  ?  Do  they  not  rather  look  as  though 
they  were  on  terms  of  intimate  confidence  with  secret  spies  and  false 
friends  of  the  Recorder?  Will  not  such  a  course  necessarily  excite 
suspicion  that  there  is  a  secret  plan  of  espionage  carried  on  by  the 
Tennessee  Baptist  for  the  sole  purpose  of  injuring  the  Recorder? 
How  else  do  they  obtain  those  distorted  and  perverted  accounts  of 
our  acts  and  doings  ?  W' e  appeal  to  brothers  Pendleton  and  Graves : 
will  they  not  be  convinced,  yea,  do  they  not  know  these  things  are 
hurtful  to  the  Church,  and  must  ultimately  injure  them  in  common 
with  us  and  the  cause  ?  Will  they  not  learn  that  those  "vho  are  suffi- 
ciently depraved  and  vicious  to  retail  to  them  the  private  affairs  of 
their  brethren  for  publication,  would  not  scruple  to  misstate,  misre- 
present, and  slander?  W'e  again  repeat,  we  must  believe  brethren 
Pendleton  and  Graves  are  imposed  upon  by  designing  tattlers.  In 
this  way  alone  can  we  account  for  the  strange  infatuation  which  seems 
to  have  taken  possession  of  them — that  there  were  those  connected 
with  the  Recorder  who  were  in  a  conspiracy  with  brethren  in  Nash- 
ville to  kill  off  J.  R.  Graves,  and,  as  they  have  it  in  Bowling-Green, 
if  necessary  brother  P.  must  fall  too,  and  he  even  intimates  how  hard 
he  will  die.     At  first  we  treated  this  matter  seriously,  and  assured 

12* 


274  THE   GREAT    IRON    WJIKEL   EXAMINED. 

brother  P.  and  his  friends  that  we  had  no  such  -wish,  the  ■whole  mat- 
ter was  a  fabrication  ;  but  the  idea  of  being  a  martyr  in  the  cause  of 
J.  11.  Graves  seems  to  possess  liim  as  an  infatuation;  his  every  act 
and  thought  seems  colored  witli  the  fancy,  until  the  ridiculous  so  far 
exceeds  the  serious  that  really  in  spite  of  ourselves  we  can  but  be 
amused. 

And  yet  another  witness  !  The  "  South-western 
Baptist"  of  June  7th,  1855,  published  at  Tuskegec,  Ala- 
bama, and  edited  by  Elder  Samuel  Henderson,  contains  a 
communication  of  four  columns,  in  which  we  find  the  follow- 
ing remarkable  language  : 

I  think  it  due  the  public  to  state  that  I  find  a  large  part  of  the 
article  from  the  "Western  Watchman,  '  in  the  Great  Iron  Wheel,  a 
work  written  by  a  Baptist — the  Rev.  ]\Ir.  Graves ;  a  portion  of  the 
piece  is  without  quotation  marks.  See  pages  291,  292,  295,  296,  299, 
300.  A  few  precious  extracts  will  show  the  spirit  of  the  author.  Mr. 
Graves  charitably  classes  "ruling  elders  of  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
and  Methodist  Conferences,  with  Pio  Nino,  and  styles  them  big  and 
little  Popes."  Page  45  Iron  Wheel.  "  We  see  bishops  and  ruling 
elders  lording  it  over  God's  children."  Page  50.  "  Any  Pedobaptist 
Society  is  a  huge  clerical  despotism  itself."  Page  50.  On  pages  254,  etc., 
he  calls  "all  Protestant  sects  harlots  and  abominations  of  the  earth," 
and  the  communing  together  of  Methodists  and  Presbyterians  "  a 
blasphemous  farce,  prostituting  the  holy  emblems  to  the  propagation 
of  a  falsehood."  On  page  265  he  saj's,  "Protestant  ministers  have 
usurped  Christ's  place,  and  exercise  his  authority  over  his  Church." 
You  may  imagine  my  surprise,  then,  on  discovering  that  the  piece, 
ascribed  in  the  "Watchman"  to  some  profound  philosopher  uncon- 
nected with  any  Church,  was  surely  an  effusion  of  the  tender  mercies 
of  the  lovely  Mr.  Graves,  whose  charity  is  so  strikingly  displayed  in 
the  foregoing  extracts.  What  meant  this  concealment  of  the  author? 
For  charity  of  this  description,  however,  I  never  gave  you  credit,  and 
therefore  did  not  look  for  you  to  endorse  the  beautiful  sayings  of 
such  a  writer. 

Worse  and  worse  I  I  have  before  me  the  '^  New  Or- 
leans Weekly  Baptist  Chronicle"  for  November,  1854, 
edited  by  Wm.  C.  Duncan,  in  which  Professor  Duncan  is 
defended  against  the  slanderous  assaults  of  Graves.  Professor 
Duncan  is  one  of  the  most  intelligent  and  able  of  Southern 
Baptist  ministers.  He  is  a  professor  in  the  University  of 
Louisiana,  and  pastor  of  the  Baptist  church  in  New  Orleans, 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  276 

The  article  in  the  '■^ Chronicle'^  occupies  eighteen  columns, 


and  is  headed^  ^'■Defence  against  False  Charges  and  Misre- 
presentations of  Rev.  J.  R.  Graves.'^  I  quote  only  the  two 
following  paragraphs,  and  they  will  serve  as  fair  specimens  of 
the  whole : 

There  is  much  dependent  upon  the  decision  which  the  denomina- 
tion may  render  respecting  these  libels  of  the  Tennessee  Baptist  on 
Professor  D.'s  History  of  John  the  Baptist.  Mr.  Graves,  while  ho 
affects  v/onderful  zeal  for  the  Baptist  denomination,  aims  a  stab  at 
one  of  its  cardinal  principles,  freedom  of  opinion,  and  a  right  to  differ 
from  any  or  all  in  the  denomination  on  points  of  doctrine  not  essential 
to  Christianity.  Mr.  D.  does  not  agree  with  many  Baptists  touching 
the  baptism  and  ministry  of  the  Forerunner.  Is  he  on  that  account 
to  be  injured  in  his  character  for  orthodoxy,  to  be  frowned  down  in 
his  publication  enterprises,  and  to  be  opposed  in  all  his  undertakings 
for  the  advancement  of  the  Baptist  cause  ?  And,  above  all,  is  this 
to  be  done  by  a  man  who,  possessing  power,  abuses  it  most  shame- 
fully ;  a  man  noted  alike  for  his  vanity,  his  ignorance,  and  his  hot- 
headed folly;  and  who  has  not  one  worthy  qualification  for  acting  the 
part  of  leader  and  adviser  of  the  denomination  ?  These  are,  just 
now,  momentous  questions,  which  are  to  be  decided  by  the  Baptists 
of  the  South-west. 

In  what  we  have  written,  we  deliberately  arraign  J,  B.  Graves, 
Baptist  editor,  of  Tennessee,  before  the  denomination,  on  the  charge 
of  repeated  falsehood  and  misrepresentation.  Our  proofs  have  been  ad- 
duced. Judge  between  us,  ye  that  are  interested.  Acquit  him  of 
falsehood  if  you  can,  acquit  him  of  misrepresentation  if  you  can. 
One  thing,  however,  do.  Sa}'  now,  whether  a  man  so  careless  of 
truth,  so  hasty,  so  fell  in  his  hostility,  so  incapable  of  discussing  any 
subject  with  candor  and  faii*ness,  so  unjust  to  his  opponents,  is  fit  to 
lead  (nay,  to  govern,  for  govern  is  what  he  is  clearly  trying  to  do) 
the  denomination  in  the  South-west.  Decide  now.  Baptists  that  are 
free,  whether  the  despotism  of  this  man  is  to  stand  or  fall.  His  com- 
mitted partisans,  no  doubt,  will  uphold  him,  be  ho  false  or  bo  he  true. 
But  will  the  intelligent,  the  thinking,  the  freedom-loving  among  our 
Baptists,  defend  and  sustain  him  in  his  high-handed  course  of  injus- 
tice and  iniquity?  We  have  done,  we  trust,  with  this  unpleasant 
subject  for  ever. 

L.  Alex.  Duncan  &  Co. 
William  C.  Duncan. 

New  Orleans,  Nov.  1,  1854. 

And  still  they  come  !  I  have  before  me  a  pamphlet  of 
fourteen  pages,  from  this  same  Baptist  office  in  New  Orleans, 
in  reply  to  the  ^^  false  charges  and  misrepresentations"  of 


276  THE   GREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

Graves  against  Profess^or  Duncan ;  and  on  the  fourteen  pages 
are  enumerated  FIFTY-THREE  FALSEHOODS  by  Graves! 
I  will  trouble  the  reader  with  but  two  short  extracts : 

Mr.  Graves  has  endeavored  in  three  ways  to  injure  the  standing  of 
the  Chronicle  :  in  all  three  modes  hy  misrepresenlalioji.  1.  By  studi- 
ously creating  a  false  impression  as  to  the  sentiments  advocated  by 
the  Chronicle.  2.  By  not  truly  stating  the  views  held  by  Professor 
D.,  or  advocated  by  Von  Rohden,  in  the  work  "John  the  Baptist," 
3.  By  misrepresenting  Mr.  D.'s  acts  and  opinions  in  other  particulars. 

4.  Mr.  G.  asserts,  with  only  the  above  Notice,  then  before  him,  as 
his  authority,  that  the  Index  "has  unqualifiedly  pronounced  all  its 
[the  book's]  doctrines  sound,  and  of  course  sound  Baptist  doctrines." 
One  wonders  that  his  hand  did  not  wither  as  he  penned  these  un- 
truthful words.     Ought  such  a  man  to  be  credited  on  any  point  ? 

The  long  and  the  short  of  the  matter  is,  that  Graves  seeks 
to  put  down,  and  otherwise  override  all  other  Baptist  papers. 
He  attempted  to  prevent  the  starting  of  the  "  Baptist  Watch- 
man" in  Knoxville ;  and  John  L.  Moses,  I  think  it  was,  an 
intelligent  and  respectable  member  of  that  Church  in  Knox- 
ville, took  him  off  through  the  columns  of  the  *' Watchman  I" 
I  am  unable  to  lay  my  hands  upon  the  paper,  or  I  would 
quote  from  it  at  length. 

This  is  an  outline,  gentle  reader,  of  the  character  of  Elder 
J.  B.  Graves.  Strange  to  say,  some  of  the  prominent  min- 
isters and  members  of  that  Church  in  Tennessee,  Georgia, 
Alabama,  and  the  Carolinas,  are  circulating  and  defending  his 
book,  with  all  its  false  and  slanderous  affirmations !  This  is 
giving  his  falsehoods  currency  to  a  very  great  extent,  and  will 
in  the  end  bring  a  crash  upon  the  Baptist  Church  in  the 
South  and  West,  as  it  will  involve  her  ministers  and  members, 
in  the  estimation  of  the  public,  in  the  guilt  of  bearing  ''false 
witness  against  their  neighbor."  This  will  necessarily  close 
against  them  the  door  of  usefulness  with  thousands  to  whom 
they  might  otherwise  be  profitable.  It  has  already  injured 
the  ''  North  Carolina  Baptist  Publishing  Society."  The  Me- 
thodists have  outlived,  and   lived  down,  greater  opposition 


THE   GREAT    UION    ^VllEEL   EXAMINED.  277 

than  this ;  and  will  certainly  come  out  of  this  unhurt.     But 
the  Baptist  Church  is  to  suffer  by  it — mark  tvhat  I  sai/! 

In  concluding  this  chapter,  allow  me  to  call  the  attention 
of  Mr.  Graves  and  his  endorsers,  especially  at  Baleigh,  to  one 
or  two  passages  of  Scripture,  and  earnestly  entreat  both  him 
and  them  to  reflect  seriously  upon  their  solemn  import,  before 
it  is  too  late  !     The  first  is  found  in  Revelation  xxi.  8  : 

Aud  all  liars  shall  have  their  part  in  the  lake  which  burneth  with 
fire  and  brimstone. 

The  second  passage  is  found  in  1  Tim.  iv.  1,  2,  and  reads 
as  follows : 

Now  the  Spirit  speaketh  expressly,  that  in  the  latter  times  some 
shall  depart  from  the  faith,  giving  heed  to  seducing  spirits,  and  doc- 
trines of  devils;  speaking  lies  in  hypocrisy;  having  their  conscience 
seared  with  a  hot  iron. 


278  THE   GREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

Methodism  "Republicanism  BackAvards" — Graves's  pictorial  repre- 
sentations of  the  oppressions  of  Methodism — Methodism  "death  to 
all  the  institiitions  for  which  Washington  fought  and  freemen  died" 
— Washington  taught  the  contrai-y  in  his  letter  to  Bishops  Asbury 
and  Coke — The  Baptist  Churches  pure  democracies — Robert  Hall 
thought  otherwise — Hall's  opinion  of  Wesley — Wesley's  Address  to 
the  American  Methodists — Strength  of  religious  parties  in  this 
coiintry — Churches  dividing  upon  the  slavery  question  —  Elder 
Graves  a  Northern  man,  and  strongly  suspected  of  Abolitionism ! 

Elder  Graves  is  peculiarly  unfortunate  in  his  pictorial 
representation  of  the  Methodist  Wheels,  on  page  161  of  his 
book,  which  he  classically  styles  ''  Republicanism  Back- 
wards !'^  He  has  the  Bishops  on  the  outside,  holding  the 
handles  and  keeping  the  machinery  in  motion.  It  would 
have  been  much  more  appropriate  to  have  had  the  "Wheels" 
propelled  by  a  steam-engine,  (such  as  he  mortgaged  to  a 
Baptist  friend,  to  avoid  paying  for  his  slanders  in  Henderson 
County  !)  while  the  Bishops  act  as  chief  engineers.  For  as 
tyrannical,  oppressive,  and  arbitrary  as  the  powers  of  the 
bishops,  presiding  elders,  circuit-riders,  and  stationed  preach- 
ers may  be  in  the  eyes  of  their  traducers,  they  are  dependent 
upon  the  voluntarjj  contributions  of  the  people  for  their  sup- 
port. Amongst  the  Methodist  laity  are  Senators  and  Repre- 
sentatives in  Congress,  Governors  of  States,  Judges  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  the  Supreme,  Chancery, 
and  Circuit  Courts  of  States,  presidents  and  professors  of 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  279 

colleges,  doctors  and  lawyers,  merchants  and  capitalists  of 
every  grade,  and  as  learned,  intelligent,  and  patriotic  citizens 
as  can  be  found  in  any  other  Church  on  the  American  Conti- 
nent, and  more  of  them!  How,  then,  can  any  one  suppose 
that  such  men  would  quietly  crouch  under  a  huge  platform, 
beneath  the  oppressive  weight  of  a  pyramid  of  itinerant 
preachers,  such  as  is  represented  on  page  306  of  his  book, 
where  he  represents  Methodism  as  a  religion  of  "  Preachers 
on  the  People's  Backs?''  To  say  the  least  of  it,  the  idea  is 
superlatively  ridiculous  ! 

But  Graves  tells  the  world  in  his  book,  that 

The  Methodist  system  is  death  to  all  the  institutions  for  which 
Washington  fought  and  freemen  died. 

It  seems  that  George  Washington  thought  differently. 
He  says,  in  a  letter  addressed  to  the  Bishops  of  the  Method- 
ist Church,  about  the  time  of  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary 
War  :— 

I  must  assure  you  in  particular,  that  I  take  in  the  kindest  part  the 
promise  you  make  of  presenting  your  prayers  at  a  throne  of  grace 
for  me,  and  that  I  likewise  implore  the  Divine  benediction  on  your- 
selves and  yom*  religious  community. 

Now,  would  George  Washington  have  given  ^^aid  and 
comfort"  to  a  despotic  organization — to  a  set  of  anti-republi- 
cans, whose  religious  '^  system  is  death  to  all  the  institutions 
for  which  he,  Washington,  fought  and  freemen  died?"  Surely 
not !  But  Washington  did  give  ^'  aid  and  comfort "  to  the 
Methodist  Church,  and  prayed  the  Divine  henediction  upon 
its  bishops,  ministers  and  members!  The  Methodist  Church 
is  now  what  she  was  when  Washington  patronized  her,  and 
prayed  the  ^'  Divine  benediction'^  upon  her  clergy  and  mem- 
bership ',  and  he  who  charges  that  she  is  ^^  despotic  and  anti- 
republican,^'  is  guilty  of  knowingly  slandering  the  ''  Father 
of  his  Country" — the  immortal  Washington  !  Yerily,  the 
prayer  of  that  matchless  patriot,  offered  to  God  for  his  bless- 


280  THE    GREAT    IRON    WIIKET.    EXAMINED. 

ings  to  rest  upon  the  Methodist  bishops,  and  the  Methodist 
community,  is  a  Listing  shield  to  tlicir  patriotism,  which  the 
poisoned  darts  of  Graves's  malignity,  backed  as  they  are  by 
the*' North  Carolina  Publishing  Society,"  can  never  pene- 
trate !  The  proof  that  will  establish  the  anti-republicanism 
of  Methodist  episcopacy,  will  also  convict  the  great  and  good 
"Washington  of  being  a  traitor  to  the  cause  of  republicanism ! 
On  page  oil  of  his  book,  Graves  makes  this  assertion  : 

The  Baptist  Churches  are  pure  democracies — are  the  only  form  of 
purely  democratic  government  in  the  world. 

Robert  Hall,  the  great  apostle  of  the  Baptist  Church, 
thought  otherwise,  and  really  vindicated  the  Baptists  against 
the  foul  charge  of  being  republicans  !  Hall  thus  repels  the 
charge  of  republicanism  from  all  Dissenters,  Baptists,  and 
others : — 

Dissenters  are  reproached  with  the  appellation  of  republicans,  but 
the  truth  of  this  charge  has  neither  appeared  from  facts,  nor  been 
supported  by  any  reasonable  evidence. — AVorks,  vol.  ii.,  p.  82. 

As  proof  of  Elder  Hall's  position  in  regard  to  his  Church, 
he  could  refer  to  the  licentious  madness  of  the  German  Bap- 
tists, or  Anabaptists,  as  they  were  termed,  who  utterly  de- 
tested the  principles  of  republicanism,  and  considered  it  un- 
just to  charge  them  with  the  sin  of  democracy  ! 

Graves  tells  us  that  John  Wesley  was  a  loyal  subject  of  an 
English  king ;  therefore  our  Methodist  episcopacy,  to  which 
lie  tells  us  Wesley  was  hostile,  is  anti-republican !  Five 
out  of  six  Methodist  preachers  who  were  Englishmen  returned 
to  their  native  country  when  the  war  of  the  Revolution  broke 
out;  and,  therefore,  the  SIXTY  American  preachers  who,  in 
1784,  organized  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  some  years 
afterwards,  were  anti-republicans,  and  their  Church  is  hostile 
to  our  free  institutions — to  all  ^^the  institutions  for  which 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  281 

Washingtoa  fought  and  freemen  died."       Admirable  logic. 
Mr.  Graves! 

At  the  close  of  the  war,  Mr.  Wesley  addressed  the  Ameri- 
can Methodists,  and  in  part  in  the  following  noble  strains : 

As  our  American  brethren  are  totally  disentangled,  both  from  the 
State  and  from  the  English  hierarchy,  we  dare  not  entangle  them 
again,  cither  with  the  one  or  the  other ;  they  are  now  at  full  liberty, 
simply  to  follow  the  Scriptures  and  the  primitive  Church.  And  we 
judge  it  best  that  they  should  stand  fast  in  that  liberty  loherewUh  Goa 
has  so  stranr/ely  set  them  free. 

Thus  nobly  spoke  John  ^Yesley.  Could  he  be  hostile  tc 
our  institutions,  when  he  believed  God  had  set  these  colonies 
free  ?     See  Bangs's  History  of  the  Methodist  Church. 

Even  the  great  and  good  Baptist,  Kobert  Hall,  believed 
and  taught  that  John  AVesley  was  one  of  the  greatest,  purest, 
and  most  useful  men,  since  the  days  of  the  apostles — in  rela- 
tion to  whom  Mr.  Hall  said, — 

Whitefield  and  Wesley  will  be  hailed  by  posterity  as  the  second 
Reformers  of  England. 

As  the  Baptist  Church  has  been  under  way  in  the  United 
States  at  least  one  hundred  years  longer  than  the  Methodist, 
one  would  suppose  that  it  is  much  the  most  numerous  de- 
nomination. But  no :  the  Methodists  outnumber  them  two 
to  one  I  But  the  ^'  Methodist  system  is  death  to  all  the  in- 
stitutions for  which  Washington  fought  and  freemen  died," 
and  it  is  presumed  that  all  native-born  Americans  and  true 
patriots  would  scorn  to  unite  with  such  a  despotic  organiza- 
tion I  But  no  :  there  are  two  to  one  of  the  best  patriots  and 
most  talented  statesmen  in  the  country  connected  with  the 
Methodist  Church,  preferring  it  to  that  of  the  Baptist  com- 
munion. There  is  no  accounting  for  men's  tastes  in  these 
days  of  railroads,  steamboats,  and  progress  ! 

In  this  connection,  I  will  introduce  a  chapter  from  the  work 
I  published  in  1842,  as  peculiarly  applicable  here  : 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 


STRENGTH   OF   PARTIES. 

On  page  200  of  Mr.  IToweir.s  Avork,  tlie  eighteenth  and  last  chapter 
commences,  and  is  headed — "  Firm  adherence  to  original  principles 
— our  ultimate  triumph  !" 

This  chapter  contains  a  labored  argument  against  free  communion 
— calls  close  communion  "original  principles  " — boasts  thut  Baptists, 
by  adhering  to  this  selfishness,  will  finally  take  the  world !  The  con- 
cluding remarks  of  the  chapter  arc,  "Light  is  spreading — darkness 
is  receding. — Our  triumph  is  not  distant!  " 

In  order  to  show  how  far  Mr.  Howell  has  missed  the  mark  in  his 
confident  boastings,  we  need  only  to  submit  a  few  historical  facts 
relative  to  dates,  accompanied  with  an  aggregate  of  each  religious 
denomination.  According  to  Chari,es  Buck,  it  appears  that  the 
Baptist  denomination  was  first  formed  into  a  sect  of  stability  in  1520 
— olG  years  ago.  This  was  first  formed  in  Euroj^e.  Well,  accord- 
ing to  Benedict,  their  own  historian,  the  first  Baptist  church  in 
America  was  organized  in  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  in  1G39 — 203 
years  ago. 

The  rise  of  the  Methodist  Society  in  Europe,  under  John  Wesley, 
was  in  1739 — only  103  years  ago.  And  in  1749  Mr.  Wesley  drew  up 
the  "General  Rules"  contained  in  our  Discipline,  which  have  con- 
tinued to  be  the  general  rules  of  the  societies,  both  in  Europe  and 
America,  to  this  day.  The  first  Methodist  preacher  who  ever  held 
forth  in  America  was  Philip  Embury,  who  commenced  preaching  in 
the  city  of  New  York  in  the  year  1766 — only  76  years  ago!  And  in 
1768,  the  first  }.Icthodist  house  of  worship  was  erected  in  John  street, 
in  the  city  of  New  York — only  74  years  ago.  For  the  correctness  of 
these  statements,  we  refer  to  Bangs's  History  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  Vol.  i.  p.  46. 

Now,  the  number  of  Baptists  in  the  United  States  is  492,496,  while 
the  Methodists  number  850,000 — nearly  two  for  one!  Thus  it  will  be 
seen  that,  although  the  Baptists  commenced  operations  in  the  United 
States  127  years  before  the  Methodists  did,  the  latter  have  nearly 
doubled  them.  Whose  "ultimate  triumph"  would  seem  to  be  near  at 
hand,  according  to  this  rule  of  figuring  ?  Before  whom  does  it  seem 
that  "darkness  is  receding?"  In  whose  hands  is  the  sword  of  truth 
used,  so  as  to  "take  hold  on  the  hearts  of  men?"  Or,  rather,  Afrhose 
tardi/  movements,  for  the  last  two  hundred  years,  in  the  language  of 
Milton,  have  seemed  to  ^^beam  darkness  visible?"  Let  Mr.  Howell 
answer. 

But  it  may  be  said  that  we  take  sinners  into  the  Church,  and  that 
in  this  way  we  have  swelled  our  numbers.  Indeed,  this  is  said.  Not 
only  so,  but  many  other  invidious  remarks  are  made,  by  way  of  com- 
parison, evidently  intended  to  loioer  the  standard  of  personal  and 
religious  character  in  our  Church.  We  have  only  to  say,  that  the 
members  of  the  Methodist  Church  will  bear  an  honorable  comparison 
with  those  of  the  Baptist  Church,  in  any  and  every  respect;  and  thai 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED. 


283 


there  are  as  few  thieves,  liai-s,  drunkards,  Sabbath-breakers,  swearers, 
and  loafers,  among  the  Methodists,  as  there  are  among  the  Baptists. 

For  the  sake  of  establishing  the  truth  of  our  calculations,  and  for 
the  further  information  of  the  general  reader,  we  copy  the  following 
aggregate  of  each  religious  denomination,  from  Brown's  Reference 
Book  of  1841,  page  29  : 

PEINCIPAL   RELIGIOUS    DENOMINATIONS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

Christians 150,000 

German  Reformed 30^000 

Unitarians 180,000 

^lennonites 30,000 

Friends  100,000 

.Jews 15,000 

Moravians 5,800 

Monnonists 65,000 

Shakers 6,000 

New  Jerusalem ll'OOO 


Baptists 492.496 

Methodists* 850,000 

Protestant  Methodists 50,000 

Presbyterians 3.^8,083 

Congregationalists 1()0,OUO 

Catholics,  population 1,300,000 

Episcopalians,  do 000,000 

Universalists,  do 600,000 

Lutherans 63.000 

Dutch  Reformed 22,550 

Making,  together,  4,859,030  professors  of  religion,  and  allowing 
three  or  four  among  the  family  or  friends  of  each,  and  the  number  so 
ascertained  will  include  very  nearly  the  entire  population  of  the 
United  States  as  professors,  friends,  or  believers  in  the  eternal  truths 
of  Divine  revelation. 

Graves  ridicules  the  Methodist  Church  for  the  separation 
which  took  place  in  1844,  and  attributes  the  cause  to  the 
government  of  the  Church,  and  the  ambition  of  a  corrupt  and 
designing  ministry  !  That  was  a  glorious  act  on  the  part  of 
the  Methodist  Church,  and  a  proud  day  in  her  history.  It 
was  the  Aholitionists  of  the  North  who  rent  in  twain  the 
Methodist  Church,  in  1844.  I  will  let  Mr.  Calhoun  state 
the  case,  as  he  did  in  his  d^ing  speccli  in  the  United  States 
Senate,  on  the  4th  of  March,  1850.  He  was  posted  on  the 
slavery  question,  in  all  its  bearings.  Speaking  of  the  effect 
of  the  Abolition  agitation  upon  the  religious  cords  which 
assisted  in  holding  the  Union  together^  he  said : 

The  first  of  these  cords  which  snapped  under  its  explosive  force 
(Abolitionism)  was  that  of  the  powerful  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
The  numerous  and  strong  ties  which  held  it  together  are  all  broke, 
and  its  unity  gone. 


*  The  above  calculation  was  made  from  the  Methodist  Minutes  of  1841,  since  which 
time  the  increase  of  our  societies  has  been  unprecedented.  We  now  number  900,000, 
and  upwards!  What  the  increase  of  other  Churches  has  been,  we  have  no  means 
of  ascertaining.    [We  number  now— 1856 — over  a  million  and  a  quarter.] 


284  THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED. 

The  next  cord  that  snapped  was  that  of  the  Baptist,  one  of  the 
largest  and  most  respectable  of  tlie  denominations.  That  of  the 
Presbyterian  is  not  entirely  snapped,  ))ut  some  of  its  strands  Iiavc 
given  way. 

It  is  in  evidence,  then,  that  the  Methodist  and  Baptist 
Churches  have  divided  upon  the  slavery  question.  The 
Dutch  Reformed  Church  has  since  followed  suit;  and 
during  the  sitting  of  the  synod  of  this  Church  or  denomina- 
tion, in  New  York,  in  October  last,  there  was  a  warm  discus- 
sion on  the  subject  of  fellowship  with  slaveholders,  and  an 
ajifi-sIaverT/ jJositioii  v:as  taken!  The  question  of  admitting 
the  Classis  of  North  Carolina  into  the  Synod  was  decided  in 
the  negative,  in  a  resolution  offered  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Bethune, 
of  Brooklyn,  by  a  vote  of  55  to  34 — showing  the  Aboli- 
tionists to  have  a  majority  of  twenty-one  in  the  Synod !  The 
cause  of  exclusion  was  slavery,  which  is  now  agitating  and 
dividing  the  country,  as  it  has  done  the  Churches.  The  same 
agitation  is  embracing  the  Presbyterian  and  Episcopal  Churches, 
and  I  believe  they,  too,  will  be  rent  in  twain  by  it,  as  they 
ought  to  be,  unless  the  Northern  fanatics  cease  their  aggres- 
sions. 

I  have  not  intended  to  say,  nor  did  Mr.  Calhoun,  that 
any  organic  bond  ever  united  the  Baptist  Church.  The  loose 
and  confused  nature  of  their  Church  government  is  such,  that 
every  Baptist  congregation  is  a  separate  and  independent 
organization.  They  never  had  a  General  Assembly,  a  General 
Conference^  or  a  General  Convention.  Nothing  over,  under, 
around,  or  through,  ever  formed  them  into  one  body !  Outside 
of  the  Church,  certain  voluntary  societies  were  formed  several 
years  ago,  consisting  of  individuals  of  the  Baptist  persuasion, 
whose  objects  were  the  publication  of  books,  and  the  sending 
of  missionaries  into  foreign  fields  of  labor.  To  these  socie- 
ties, churches  of  that  '^  faith  and  order"  sent  their  money,  or 
withheld  it — purchased  books  from  them,  or  got  them  else- 


THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED.  285 

where,  just  as  they  pleased.  Even  in  +his  there  was  no  orga- 
nic bond  of  union,  and  no  obligation  acknowledged!  In 
process  of  time,  certain  Northern  Abolition  Baptists  raised 
an  outcry  against  sending  slaveholders  abroad  as  missionaries, 
upon  the  funds  of  said  society !  The  North  and  the  South 
agreed  to  separate  amicably,  and  partition  out  the  missionary 
ground.  This  took  place  in  1845;  and  this  is  what  Mr.  Cal- 
houn meant  by  the  division  of  the  Baptist  Church,  because  it 
was  occasioned  by  means  of  the  Abolition  agitation  !  Since 
that  period,  a  Southern  Baptist  Publication  Societi/  has  been 
organized,  which  has  widened  the  breach  between  the  North 
and  South  I 

And  now,  people  of  the  South,  why  is  it  that  Elder  Graves 
can  publish  a  book  of  570  pages,  north  of  Mason  and  Dixon's 
Line,  WHERE  HE  WAS  BORN,  and  discuss  so  many 
different  subjects,  some  of  them  growing  directly  out  of  the 
slavery  agitation,  and  never  say  one  word  AGAINST  ABO- 
LITIONISM, or  one  word  in  favor  of  SOUTHERN  SLA- 
VERY ?  After  leaving  New  England,  it  is  said  that  he  took 
up  his  abode  in  the  "Western  Reserve,''  in  Ohio,  and  in 
Indiana,  the  great  theatre  of  Free-Soilism !  It  has,  moreover, 
been  said  of  him,  that  he  was  an  Abolitionist  before  he  came 
here  to  reside  !  One  thing  is  certain — he  heeps  very  dark 
upon  this  grave  question,  and  ought  to  be  made  to  come  out 
explicitly,  if  he  concludes  to  take  up  his  permanent  abode  in 
the  South ! 

We  are  on  the  eve  of  uuconjecturable  events,  and  every 
Southern  man  ought  to  show  his  hand.  Look  at  the  conduct 
of  Congress !  A  struggle  of  unequalled  fury  is  swiftly 
approaching  us;  and  if  the  ties  of  our  cherished  Union  come 
out  of  it  unrent,  they  are  made  of  sterner  stuff  than  the 
history  of  the  past  would  seem  to  warrant!  The  bonds  of  the 
Union  have  resisted  political  agitation,  but  can  they  withstand 
religious   fury?     Abolitionism   has   travelled   from   political 


286       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

dominion  to  religious  conviction,  and  has  infected  the  whole 
mind  and  heart  of  the  North.  Under  its  palsying  touch, 
some  of  the  strongest  cords  that  held  the  Union  together 
have  snapped  :  others  are  now  assailed,  and  I  fear  will  give 
way!  Elder  Graves  is  suspected  of  unsoundness  upon  this 
(juestiou  ;  and  if  these  suspicions  be  well-grounded,  as  I  have 
reason  to  fear  they  are,  he  is  a  dangerous  man  to  be  operating 
in  the  South ! 


''"^^^A^^     .  } 


GRAVES  HAS   ONE   FACE  FOR  AND   ONE  AGAINST  KNOW-NOTHINQISM. — See  Chap.   xil. 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  287 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

Graves  for  and  against  Know-Notbingism — A  two-faced  and  insincere 
man — The  "  State  Line  Baptist  Association"  endorsing  Graves's 
paper  and  book — Criticisms  npon  that  endorsement,  and  the  char- 
acters of  the  members  of  the  Association — Their  endorsement  of 
Orchard's  History  of  Foreign  Baptists — New  Version  Baptists — 
Their  fraudulent  demagogiieism,  and  ulterior  objects ! 

Being  identified  with  one  of  the  great  political  parties  of 
the  country,  and  being  the  editor  oi  n.  j^ol  it  iced  journal,  it  has 
been  my  constant  aim,  in  the  preparation  of  this  work,  to 
avoid  any  collision  with  an  opposing  political  party,  or  the 
introduction  of  any  matter  into  this  work  that  would  arouse 
the  prejudices  of  political  parties.  My  design  has  been,  and 
still  is,  in  this  work,  to  preserve  the  mind  free  from  all  im- 
proper bias,  and  to  discuss  the  great  issues  involved  in  the 
slanders  of  Elder  Graves  against  the  Church  of  which  I  have 
had  the  honor  to  be  a  member  and  a  minister,  for  these  thirty 
years  past. 

But  to  show  up  the  inconsistencies  of  Elder  Graves,  and 
his  tiuo-faced  course  even  in  politics,  which  is  but  faintly 
shadowed  forth  by  the  engraving  attached  to  this  chapter,  I 
will  present  him  as  THE  KNOW-NOTHING  CHAMPION 
of  1854,  and  again  as  the  KEV.  ANTI-KNOW-NOTHING 
of  1855  !  This  expos<§ — not  intended  to  have  any  bearing  in 
politics,  either  pro  or  con — will  aid  in  illustrating  the  char- 
acter of  the  man,  as  the  dirty  ear-\oig  of  Baptist  exclusive- 


288       THE  OREAT  IRON  V»'HKKL  KXAMINED. 

ness — the  geographical  location  of  whose  moral  and  political 
principles  is  nowhere,  and  the  tenants  of  "whose  heaven  are 
the  haggard  phantoms  of  an  overheated  imagination  —  a 
mockery  of  a  man  not  entitled  to  the  confidence  of  Southern 
men,  coming,  as  he  has  done,  from  an  Abolition  State,  and 
being  suspected  of  orthodoxy  upon  the  great  and  exciting 
topic  of  slavery !  For  by  the  same  rule  and  in  the  same 
manner  that  he  would  be  a  Know-Nothing  in  1854,  and  an 
Anti  in  1855,  he  might  still  harbor  all  the  Free-Soil  preju- 
dices of  his  native  State  and  raising.  Ay,  his  code  of  morals, 
and  his  mode  of  reasoning,  enable  him  to  assume  the  position 
of  an  ^'  illustrious  predecessor,"  of  whom  the  poet  says : 

He  'd  prove  a  buzzard  is  no  fowl, 
And  that  a  lord  may  be  an  owl : 
A  calf  an  alderman,  a  goose  a  justice, 
And  rooks  committee-men  and  trustees. 

In  1854,  when  Know-Nothingism  was  sweeping  eveiy 
thing  before  it — at  least  as  was  supposed — Elder  Graves  came 
out  with  the  following  editorial,  in  the  ^'Tennessee  Baptist" 
of  August  26 : 

KNOW-NOTHINGS. 

If  we  can  read  the  "signs  of  the  times,"  the  Know-Nothings  are 
organizing  in  great  strength  in  this  city,  and  the  order  will  spread 
with  great  rapidity  throughout  the  State,  and  without  doubt  will 
carry  the  next  elections  triumphantly  over  all  parties. 

Nothing  is  more  evident  than  that  our  political  parties  have  become 
sadly,  deplorably  corrupt.  Our  politicians,  like  so  many  wolves, 
wrangle  and  fight  for  the  spoils  of  party.  Congress  has  become  a 
most  "shameful  and  disgraceful  scene  of  drunkenness,  riot,  and  cau- 
cussing  for  the  Presidency,  and  the  minor  offices  of  the  government. 
The  foreign  element  is  increasing  in  fearful  ratio.  Nearly  one  million 
per  annum  of  foreign  Catholics,  German  infidels  —  who,  though 
opposed  in  all  else,  are  agreed  in  the  subversion  of  our  free  institu- 
tions— are  pouring  in  upon  us,  and  the  tide  is  increasing.  These 
foreigners  have  already  commenced  their  warfare  upon  the  use  of  the 
Bible  in  our  public  schools — against  our  free  school  system — against 
our  Sabbath — against  our  laws.  They  boldly  threaten  to  overthrow 
our  Constitution,  through  the  profligacy  of  our  politicians ;  and  we 
gee  our  candidates  for  political  preferment  pandering  more  and  more 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  289 

to  the  Catholic  and  foreign  influence.  We  see  from  the  last  census 
that  the  majority  of  the  civil  and  municipal  ofi&ces  of  this  government 
are  to-day  in  the  hands  of  Catholics  and  foreigners:  an  overwhelming 
majority  of  our  army  and  navy  are  foreign  Catholics.  They  hear  the 
editors  of  Catholic  papers,  who  are  endorsed  by  their  Archbishops, 
threatening  in  these  words : 

If  the  Catholics  ever  gain — which  they  surely  will  do,  though  at  a  distant  day 
— an  immense  numerical  majority,  religious  freedom  in  this  country  is  at  an  end. 
So  say  our  enemies.    So  we  belieye. 

"The  Rambler,"  an  organ  of  Popery  in  England,  says: 

Religious  liberty,  in  the  sense  of  a  liberty  possessed  by  every  man  to  choose  his 
own  religion,  is  one  of  the  most  wicked  delusions  ever  foisted  upon  this  age  by  the  father 
of  all  deceit.  The  very  name  of  liberty,  except  in  the  sense  of  a  permission  to  do 
certain  definite  acts,  ought  to  be  banished  from  the  domain  of  religion.  It  is  neither 
more  nor  less  than  a  falsehood.    No  man  has  a  right  to  choose  his  religion. 

Thousands  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  American  citizens  and 
Christians,  who  love  their  country  better  than  party,  and  who  nobly 
prefer  to  struggle  and  sacrifice  even  blood  if  it  shall  need  it,  to  per- 
petuate this  glorious  legacy  of  our  hero-fathers  and  martyrs  of  the 
Revolution,  rather  than  to  wrangle  and  prostitute  their  principles  for 
the  spoils  of  party,  are  banding  themselves  together,  determined  to 
Know  Nothing  but  the  safety  and  best  good  of  their  country,  and  of 
their  whole  country.  The  following  are  said  to  be  the  leading  prin- 
ciples of  the  Know-Nothings : 

1.  Repeal  of  the  Naturalization  Laws. 

2.  None  but  NATIVE  AMERICANS  for  office. 

3.  A  pure  American  Common  School  System. 

4.  Opposition,  first  and  last,  to  the  formation  of  military  companies 
composed  of  foreigners. 

5.  War  to  the  hilt  on  Romanism. 

6.  The  advocacy  of  a  sound,  healthy,  and  safe  Nationality. 

7.  Hostility  to  all  Papal  influences,  in  whatever  form  and  under 
whatever  name. 

8.  American  institutions  and  American  sentiments. 

9.  More  stringent  and  effective  Emigration  Laws. 

10.  The  amplest  protection  of  Protestant  interests. 

11.  The  doctrines  of  the  revered  WASHINGTON,  and  his  com- 
patriots. 

12.  The  sending  back  of  all  foreign  paupers  and  convicts  landed 
on  our  shores. 

13.  The  formation  of  societies  to  protect  American  interests. 

14.  Eternal  enmity  to  all  who  attempt  to  carry  out  the  principles 
of  a  foreign  Church  or  State. 

15.  Our  country,  our  whole  country,  and  nothing  but  our  country. 

16.  And  finally,  American  laws,  American  legislation,  and  death  to 
.all  foreign  influences,  whether  in  high  places  or  low  I 

If  we  could  be  allowed  to  add  one  or  two  more,  we  would  Know 
Nothing  in  politics  save  these  principles.     We  have  for  years  clearly 

13 


290  THK   GREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

seen,  and  so  preached  and  so  written,  that  within  a  few  years  there 
would  be  but  two  great  parties  in  this  Republic — the  American  Pro- 
testant party,  and  the  Foreign  Catholic  and  infidel  party ;  and  every 
true  patriot  and  Christian  will  be  compelled  to  take  sides,  or  be 
branded  as  a  traitor.  Then  it  will  be  the  duty  of  the  minister,  as  well 
as  the  member,  to  become  a  politician ;  and  the  politics  of  that  day 
will  needs  be  preached  from  the  pulpit  and  prayed  around  the  family 
altars,  and  enter  into  and  affect  all  the  interests  and  relations  of  life. 
When  the  crisis  comes,  we  expect  to  be  found  in  the  field ;  and  upon 
the  stump,  if  we  shall  possess  an  influence  that  is  needed.  We  hail 
the  omens  of  this  day :  this  society,  or  party,  or  whatever  it  is,  is  the 
budding  of  great  hopes.  It  bids  fair  to  revolutionize  and  obliterate 
the  existing  political  parties;  and  if  it  does  nothing  more,  it  will 
have  done  a  good  and  saving  work. 

We  commend  the  above  principles,  and  a  few  more,  to  the  serious 
and  favorable  attention  of  Christians  and  patriots. 

Now,  in  October,  1855,  wlien  the  current  of  public  opinion 
seemed,  at  least,  to  have  set  in  against  these  principles — 
principles  which  the  reverend  elder  so  much  cherished,  and 
in  defence  of  which  he  was  ready  to  take  the  stump — he 
came  out  and  denied  any  approval  of  said  principles,  or 
sympathy  for  them ;  and  published  such  an  article  as  drew 
from  Judge  Longstreet,  a  Methodist  preacher  of  Missis- 
sippi, the  following  card,  which  I  copy  from  the  Memphis 
Appeal  for  October,  1855  : 

THE  REV.  J.  R.  GRAVES,  OF  TENNESSEE. 

Through  the  kindness  of  a  Baptist  friend  and  brother,  I  have  just 
been  favored  with  a  perusal  of  the  following  from  the  pen  of  the  Rev. 
J.  R.  Graves: 

"Judge  Longstreet. — We  understand  that  this  gentleman  is  charg- 
ing us  with  being  a  I^now-Nothing,  and  the  Great  Iron  Wheel  is  a 
Know-Nothing  work.  We  pronounce  both  statements  false.  The 
work  was  written  years  before  Kjiow-Nothingism  was  born,  and  we 
have  never  been  a  Know-Nothing." 

In  answer  to  the  foregoing,  I  have  to  say  that  there  is  not  ono  word, 
syllable,  or  letter  of  truth  in  the  information  which  Mr.  Graves  has 
received.  I  do  not  think  that  I  ever  uttered  his  name  five  times  in 
my  life,  and  I  am  confident  that  I  never  uttered  it  since  the  rise  of 
Know-Nothingism  in  this  country.  Nor  did  it  ever  pass  my  lips  in 
any  unkind,  uncharitable,  or  unbrotherly  connection  whatever.  I 
never  saw  the  "Great  Iron  Wheel,"  and,  of  course,  never  read  a  line 
of  it  in  my  life.     No  Methodist  has  ever  been  upon  better  terms  with 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  291 

his  Baptist  brethren  than  I  have  alivays  been  ;  and  never  was  I  upon 
better  terms  with  them  than  I  am  just  at  this  time.  I  respectfully 
inquire  of  Mr.  Graves,  whether  he  has  gained  any  thing  by  forcing 
this  correspondence  before  the  public  ?  Would  it  not  have  been  as 
well  for  him,  and,  perchance,  far  better  for  me,  that  it  should  have 
been  conducted  privately  ?  But,  as  I  have  said,  for  the  kindness  of  a 
member  of  his  Church,  I  should  never  have  seen  his  publication;  and 
then,  after  waiting  a  reasonable  time  for  a  reply,  he  might  have  pro- 
claimed me  to  the  public  as  neither  a  "Christian,"  a  "gentleman," 
nor  an  "honest  man."  He  will,  of  course,  give  my  reply  a  place  in 
his  paper.     I  will  thank  him  for  the  number  in  which  he  inserts  it. 

A.  B.  LONGSTREET. 

The  honest  truth  is,  Graves  had  never  heard  that  Longstreet 
had  charged  him  with  being  a  "Know-Nothing.''  'Rq  fabri- 
cated the  charge  for  the  sole  purpose  of  having  a  chance  to 
deny  that  he  was  one.  He  had  been  talking,  writing,  and 
even  preaching ,  in  favor  of  the  new  political  party.  He  sup- 
posed that  they  would  carry  every  State  by  storm ;  and  if  his 
expectations  had  been  realized,  he  would  have  continued  their 
advocate.  But  at  the  time  of  writing  the  editorial  from  wbich 
Longstreet  copies,  the  elections  had  generally  gone  against  the 
Know-Nothings.  Besides,  at  the  time  of  Graves's  denial, 
there  were  strong  prejudices  getting  up  against  many  Method- 
ist preachers  in  Tennessee,  who  were  either  justly  or  unjustly 
charged  with  favoring  the  principles  and  aims  of  the  new 
party !  So  far  as  Graves  honestly  entertained  any  political 
principles,  they  were  doubtless  in  accordance  with  those  of 
the  Know-Nothings,  as  published  by  him ;  but  his  determi- 
nation was  to  be  on  the  strong  side,  and  hence  he  was  hesi- 
tating, doubting,  hoping,  and  expecting — while  his  motto 
was,  and  still  is — 


Some  said.  Graves,  go  it ;  others  said,  not  so. 
Some  said,  it  might  do  good ;  others  said,  no. 
At  last  I  thought,  since  you  are  so  divided, 
I  '11  mount  Sam  not ;  and  so  the  case  decided. 

It  is  this  disposition  to  ^'  become  all  things  to  all  men,'^  for 
the  sake  of  gain,  or  rather  the  sale  of  his  hook  at  the  North, 


292       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

where  lie  was  brought  up,  that  he  has  waded  through  570  pages, 
without  defining  his  position  upon  the  slavery  question !  Nay, 
when  the  question  came  up  as  connected  with  the  division  of 
the  Methodist  Church  South,  from  that  of  the  Church  North, 
which  was  alone  on  account  of  slavery,  he  seems  not  to  know 
it,  and  accounts  for  the  separation  on  the  ground  of  the  defects 
in  our  system  ! 

I  now  have  before  me  a  pamphlet  copy  of  the  "  Minutes 
of  the  Ninth  Annual  Meeting  of  the  State  Line  Baptist 
Association,  held  with  the  Antioch  Baptist  Church,  Bradley 
County,  Tennessee,  October  20th,  1855,  and  days  following/' 
I  copy  from  this  remarkable  publication  the  following  "Re- 
port,'' signed  by  "B.  Williams,  Chairman  :" 

Report  on  Publications. — We  recommend  the  Bible,  the  book  of  all 
books,  the  source  of  all  knowledge,  the  pilgrim's  way-bill  from  earth 
to  heaven.  Also,  the  Library,  the  Encyclopedia  of  Religious  Know- 
ledge, and  Orchard's  History  of  Foreign  Baptists ;  and  as  periodicals, 
the  Home  and  Foreign  Journal,  the  Tennessee  Baptist,  in  particular, 
inasmuch  as  it  is  a  fearless  and  bold  advocate  of  the  PRINCIPLES 
OF  OUR  HOLY  RELIGION  ;  also,  the  IRON  WHEEL  ! ! ! 

Now,  this  "  State  Line  Association"  I  know  to  be  a  one- 
horse  association,  composed  of  a  body  of  ministers  who,  to 
say  the  least  of  it,  if  called  of  God  to  preach  and  expound 
his  word,  are  not  equal  to  the  task,  for  the  want  of  sense, 
education,  and  other  acquirements !  Let  any  one  of  them 
attempt  the  discussion  of  an  important  passage  of  Scripture 
— one  which  has  been,  and  still  is,  the  subject  of  theological 
disputations — and  the  mind  of  an  intelligent  man  passes  suc- 
cessively through  the  stages  of  regret,  pity,  disgust,  and 
finally  contempt,  for  one  who,  instead  of  proving  himself  '^a 
Greek  indeed,"  sinks  at  once  into  a  deformed,  wrangling 
bigot,  whose  claims  upon  public  respect,  even  for  his  oflEice's 
sake,  vanish  at  the  first  touch  of  analysis  !  Some  of  them 
are  distinguished  about  the  "State  Line,"  among  their peojjle; 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  293 

but  they  have  risen  to  distinction,  however,  upon  the  principle 
that  a  dwarf  will  tower  when  surrounded  by  pigmies  ! 

Without  intending  to  call  in  question  the  piety  of  these 
men,  we  are  warranted  in  saying  that  in  their  discussions, 
nine  times  out  of  ten,  nothing  can  be  found  worthy  of  the 
name  of  an  argument.  Logic,  eloquence,  wit,  sarcasm,  gram- 
mar, illustration,  argument,  taste,  unction — all  and  singular, 
are  utterly  wanting.  Their  sermons  (if  it  be  lawful  to  dub 
their  incoherent  ravings  thus)  are  at  best  but  the  undigested 
outbreaks  of  those  who  have  more  partisan  zeal  than  scriptural 
knowledge,  conveyed  in  language  which  the  revision  of  a 
competent  reporter  can  scarcely  make  grammatical,  and 
adorned  with  vulgar  comparisons,  exceptionable  interjections, 
stale  quotations,  hackneyed  phrases,  and  ^^halt  and  blind" 
metaphors  !  And  yet,  these  men  alone  have  a  right  to  exe- 
cute the  ministerial  office — they  alone  have  received  a  Divine 
commission;  and  the  exclusive  right  of  granting  this  com- 
mission is  vested  in  them,  as  successors  of  the  apostles! 
Bishop  Soule,  of  the  Methodist  Church,  or  Dr.  Ely,  of  the 
Presbyterian  denomination,  may  each  baptize  a  person,  and 
baptize  by  immersion,  too  ]  but  neither  of  these  distinguished 
divines  beino;  in  the  resjular  line  of  succession  from  the  first 
immersionist  down — a  requisite  without  which  a  valid  Chris- 
tian ministry  cannot  exist — should  these  persons  conclude  to 
attach  themselves  ^o  the  Baptist  Church,  they  must  be  rehap- 
tized  by  a  Baptist  preacher,  because,  forsooth,  he  alone  has 
the  authority  to  baptize,  and  he  alone  possesses  the  power  of 
ordaining  and  commissioning  ministers  to  feed  the  flock  of 
Christ ! 

This  ignorant  Association,  it  will  be  seen,  has  styled  Graves's 
book  of  570  pages  a  ^^ periodical,^'  and  classed  it  with  the 
"Home  and  Foreign  Journal,^^  and  "Tennessee  Baptist,'' 
One  might  think  they  had  never  seen  the  work,  and  labored 
under  the  mistaken  idea  of  its  being  a  weekly  or  monthly 


294       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

magazine  !  Or,  forsooth,  they  may  have  heard  that  the  Ohjm- 
piads  among  the  Greeks,  and  the  Juhilres  of  the  Jews,  were 
periodical !  But  this  could  not  be,  for  the  whole  Association 
could  not  tell  that  Olympiad  took  its  name  from  Olympus,  a 
mountain  of  Macedonia;  or  that  the  period  of  four  years, 
reckoned  from  one  celebration  of  the  Olympic  games  to  ano- 
ther, constitutes  an  important  epoch  in  history  and  chronoloiry ! 
The  first  Olympiad  commenced  776  years  before  the  birth  of 
Christ,  and  23  years  before  the  foundation  of  Rome.  But 
that  Association  would  not  admit  these  facts,  lest  they  might 
invalidate  Johns  haptism  ! 

''  Orchard's  History  of  Foreign  Baptists"  is  a  very  absurd 
and  contradictory,  not  to  say  ridiculous  work,  published  by 
Graves  for  the  two-fold  purpose  of  making  money  out  of  the 
sales,  and  of  bolstering  up  his  favorite  theory  of  immersion j 
and  of  a  regular  succession  from  John  the  Baptist  on  the  part 
of  Baptist  preachers !  It  was  well  enough  for  the  "  State 
Line  Baptist  Association"  to  endorse  that  work,  although  it 
is  questionable  whether  any  one  of  the  body  had  ever  criti- 
cally examined  it. 

In  their  endorsement  of  the  "  Tennessee  Baptist,"  I  sup- 
pose they  intended  to  approve  its  abuse  and  slander  generally, 
and  with  it  to  go  for  and  against  Know-Nothingism.  This  is 
well  enough  ! 

In  reference  to  the  ^'  Iron  Wheel,"  I  presume  they  act 
under  standingly,  as  it  is  now  in  very  general  circulation 
among  their  people.  A  reference  to  what  I  have  brought  to 
light,  in  the  preceding  pages  of  this  work,  will  show  what 
this  Association  have  approved  ! 

In  their  recommendation  of  the  "  Bible  as  the  book  of  all 
books,  the  source  of  all  knowledge,  the  pilgrim's  way-bill  from 
earth  to  heaven,"  much  depends  upon  what  edition  or  version 
of  the  Bible  they  are  for !  If  they  go  for  the  present  author- 
ized version  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  known  as  King  James's 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  295 

translation  of  the  Bible,  I  am  with  them,  and  agree  with  them 
that  it  is  all  they  have  represented  it  to  be,  and  even  more  ! 
But  if  they  go  for  the  new  Baptist  version  of  the  Bible,  in- 
tended to  teach  that  immersion  is  exclusively  baptism,  thus 
perverting  the  word  of  God,  I  receive  no  such  ^^  pilgrim's 
way-bill  from  earth  to  heaven  ','*  for  when  I  leave  for  that 
''  immortal  clime,''  I  desire  to  go  the  ^^  overland  route,"  and 
not  by  water  ! 

I  have  with  me  the  united  opinion  of  Protestant  Europe 
and  America  that  there  exists  no  necessity  for  a  new  transla- 
tion of  the  Bible.  Those  who  believe  otherwise  are  a  set  of 
men  whose  hopeless  lapse  into  bigotry  would  prevent  their 
belief  of  the  truth  ^^  though  one  rose  from  the  dead"  and  tes- 
tified thereto !  Discreet,  learned,  and  thinking  men,  in  the 
South  and  West,  are  tired  of  listening  to  the  prating  of  a 
little,  ignorant,  plebeian  dynasty,  in  this  State,  and  another  in 
that,  about  ^^  the  new  version,  the  pure  word  of  GocV* — a  set 
of  ignorant  pretenders,  who  have  scarcely  mastered  the  spel- 
ling-hook ! 

Just  in  this  connection,  I  deem  it  proper  to  call  the  atten- 
tion of  the  reader  to  a  hypocritical  fraud  which  is  being  used 
by  Revision  Baptists,  both  in  the  pulpit  and  through  the 
press,  to  gull  and  deceive  the  masses  upon  this  subject. 
They  are  pleading,  in  justification  of  a  new  version,  that  '^  the 
American  Bible  Society  had  found  twenty-four  thousand 
ERRORS  in  our  PRESENT  ENGLISH  BiBLE."  In  the  Spirit  of 
demagogueism,  these  '^neio  version'^  Baptist  preachers  appeal  to 
the  people,  asking  them,  ^'Who  would  plead  for  a  Bible  that 
has  twenty-four  thousand  mistakes  in  it  ?"  These  vile  sect- 
arians, these  specious  deceivers,  never  tell  the  masses  the 
nature  of  those  errors — that  they  are  unimportant,  consisting 
of  errors  in  orthography,  punctuation,  italic  words,  etc.,  etc., 
such  as  in  no  way  affect  the  sense  of  the  reading !  I  close 
my  remarks  upon  this  point  by  quoting  a  few  paragraphs  from 


296       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

the  pen  of  one  who  is  well  posted  in  all  that  relates  to  the 
subject  under  consideration  : — 

The  only  thing  that  can  be  pleaded  from  the  action  of  the  American 
Bible  Society  is  that  our  present  English  Bible  has  these  errors,  which 
have  multiplied  in  process  of  time  to  this  enormous  extent,  and  which 
they  have  already  corrected,  as  their  report  shows,  and  the  edition 
thus  corrected  is  now  for  sale  in  various  parts  of  the  country.  The 
American  Bible  Society  reported  the  necessity  of  correcting  the  mis- 
takes, not  the  necessity  of  a  neio  version. 

The  American  Bible  Society,  after  a  rigid  scrutiny  of  our  English 
Bible,  pronounce  it  "inimitable:"  the  Baptists  denounce  it  as  *'■  im- 
pure T 

How  ridiculous  to  meet  in  Memphis  in  April,  1852,  and  plead  that 
the  American  Bible  Society  has  found  twenty-four  thousand  errors, 
and,  therefore,  we  must  have  a  new  version,  when  every  member  of 
this  convention  might  have  brought  the  Bible,  corrected  by  the  So- 
ciety, with  him  to  Memphis  for  sale.  The  American  Bible  Society 
desired  our  English  Bible  corrected:  the  Baptists  desire  a  new  transla- 
tion, which  will  translate  ba_pto,  bapiizo,  and  their  cognates,  by  terms 
which  signify  to  immerse. 

How,  then,  can  any  man  plead  the  action  of  the  American  Bible 
Society  as  favoring  the  project  of  a  new  version  ?  while  it  is  clear  the 
former  condemns  the  action  of  the  latter,  and  absolutely  reports  that 
there  exists  no  necessity  for  such  version. 

We  may  call  the  attention  of  the  reader  to  another  subject  inti- 
mately connected  with  the  above.  It  is  this :  That  our  brethren  who 
believe  in  ultra-immersion  will  not  agree  to  be  governed  by  the  origi- 
nal copy  published  by  the  King,  and  denominated  in  the  parlance  of 
the  historian  the  standard  Bible.  Nor  is  it  likely  they  will  agree  to 
make  the  Bible  translated  by  Archbishop  Cranmer  the  basis  of  any 
subsequent  version. 

The  whole  class  of  ultra-immersionists  most  manifestly  design  to 
condemn  and  bring  into  disrepute  the  present  received  version,  and 
by  this  manoeuvre  pave  the  way  for  the  reception  of  such  a  versiou 
as  will  teach  clearly  and  irrevocably  their  particular  views  on  t^e 
mode  of  baptism. 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  297 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

The  consideration  of  certain  miscellaneous  items  bearing  upon  the 
merits  of  this  controversy — The  "Biblical  Recorder"  charges  that 
Methodism  is  a  human  invention — Defends  Graves  against  Method- 
ist slanders — Methodists  shrink  from  investigation — Speech  of  Rev 
Dr.  Slambangus  in  Raleigh  —  Powell's  Valley  Association  —  Ths 
renegade  Jewett,  of  Ohio — North  Carolina  Baptists  vs.  Missionary, 
Bible,  Tract,  Sunday-school,  and  Temperance  Societies — Methodists 
falsely  accused  of  rebaptizing — Absurd  position  of  Close  Com- 
munion Baptists — Guilty  of  treason  against  God  ! 

Time  and  space  —  those  potent  and  universal  influences — 
compelled  me  to  conclude  some  of  the  preceding  chapters  of 
this  work  more  rapidly  than  I  should  otherwise  desire,  and 
consequently  to  omit  a  notice  of  divers  small  points  and 
issues  raised  by  Elder  Graves  and  his  ghostly  conscience- 
keepers,  especially  of  the  "North  Carolina  Publishing  So- 
ciety'' of  the  Baptist  Church  !  It  is  my  purpose  now,  how- 
ever, to  dwell  somewhat  at  length  upon  the  beneficial  results 
accruing  to  the  religious  world  from  the  learned  criticisms  of 
the  organ  of  that  society  at  Raleigh — which  is  proving,  by 
the  clearest  demonstrations,  that  upon  Baptist  journalists,  of 
the  Graves  school,  devolves  the  duty  of  propagating  refined 
and  general  intelligence,  critical  and  correct  ideas  of  litera- 
ture and  art,  and  a  true  taste  for  exalted  and  enlightened 
Christian  charity  ! 

To  be  serious,  there  is  no  other  power  in  the  United  States 
which  has  within  its  immediate  reach  the  means  of  dcing  so 
much  public  good  as  the  Press.  Compared  with  it,  the 
13* 


298  THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

school-house,  the  bar,  the  pulpit,  sink  into  insignificance. 
I  confine  this  sweeping  declaration  to  the  United  States. 
The  productions  of  the  periodical  press  of  this  country 
are  the  morning  and  evening  companions  of  the  Ameri- 
can citizen ',  and,  like  the  eyes  of  Argus,  its  admonitions,  for 
good  or  for  evil,  are  seen  and  felt  everywhere  in  the  land. 
Unfortunately  for  the  character  of  the  religious  portion  of  the 
press,  there  are  to  be  found  such  sheets  as  the  *'  Tennessee 
Baptist,"  now  published  at  Nashville  —  a  most  delectable, 
sweet-perfumed  nosegay  for  such  of  our  Baptist  brethren  to 
smell  at  as  conduct  the  '^  Biblical  Kecorder,"  a  Baptist  jour- 
nal published  in  Raleigh,  a  truly  spiritual  mustard-pot,  every 
issue  of  which  will  make  the  soul  of  a  Baptist  sneeze  with  de- 
votion to  the  cause  of  immersion  !  That  print  arrogates  to 
itself,  like  the  ^'  Canon  of  the  Covenant,"  published  at  Nash- 
ville, the  right  to  pronounce  judgment  upon  all  matters  of 
public  or  private  import  —  religious,  social,  or  political;  and 
this  right  seems  confirmed  by  general  Baptist  acquiescence  ! 

Some  unknown  friend  has  sent  me  a  number  of  the  ^'Bibli- 
cal Recorder"  of  recent  date,  in  which  I  find  a  correspondent, 
endorsed  by  the  editor,  referring  to  Graves's  publication,  in 
which  the  Methodists  as  a  denomination,  and  Methodism  as  a 
system,  are  caricatured,  traduced,  vilified,  and  blackguarded 
after  a  style  derogatory  to  the  heads  of  Billingsgate  fish- 
women,  and  to  the  spirit  which  governed  the  Spanish  Inquisi- 
tion !  This  correspondent,  a  welcome  contributor  to  the 
"  Recorder's"  chaste  columns,  gives  these  crumbs  of  comfort 
for  the  chickens  of  the  Baptist  covenant : 

If  Methodism  is  a  work  of  God,  will  it  not  bear  the  closest  scrutiny 
and  the  strictest  examination  ?  What  will  the  opponents  of  Methodism 
think,  when  they  behold  its  advocates  shrinking  from  the  light,  and 
endeavoring  to  overwhelm  with  calumny  and  slander  a  man  who  has 
dared  to  investigate  the  subject,  and  to  express  the  decided  convic- 
tions 01  his  judgment?  Human  workmanship  will  not  bear  close 
scrutiny. 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  299 

There  is  a  falsehood  involved  in  this  declaration  against 
which  I  enter  my  protest.  The  Methodists  fear  the  "  closest 
scrutiny  and  the  strictest  examination  I"  When  did  Method- 
ists shun  the  "  closest  scrutiny  and  the  strictest  examination" 
into  their  entire  system,  whether  of  doctrines  or  polity  ?  They 
never  did — tJie?/  never  will!  This  is  a  vile  misrepresentation 
of  the  whole  of  the  eventful  career  of  Methodism,  both  in 
Europe  and  America.  Methodism  has  been  assailed  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic  by  men  of  much  more  force  of  character 
and  brilliancy  of  intellect  than  the  reverend  blackguard  of 
the  "  Tennessee  Baptist"  could  bring  to  bear  against  it,  and 
it  not  only  stood  firm,  but  faced  the  foe,  and  battled  success- 
fully for  its  principles.  Wesley,  Fletcher,  Clarke,  and  Wat- 
son, investigated  all  the  peculiarities  of  Methodism  against  a 
host  of  learned  and  profound  enemies  beyond  the  Atlantic, 
overturning  their  flimsy  arguments,  driving  them  to  call  for 
quarters,  and  actually  conquering  a  peace !  In  America, 
Doctors  Bangs,  Fisk,  Bond,  Emory,  and  others,  investigated 
the  charges  against  Methodism,  and  scrutinized  the  slanders 
of  her  enemies,  until  some  of  them  were  ashamed  to  avow 
themselves  the  authors  of  what  they  had  written,  and  others 
retired  upon  their  dignity,  leaving  their  own  cherished  Rab- 
binical legends  and  Brahminical  vagaries  to  vanish  before  the 
light  of  truth !  Go  back  to  the  assaults  of  1825,  ^30,  and 
^32,  upon  Methodist  doctrines  and  polity,  and  it  will  be  seen 
that  the  holy  fathers  and  friars  of  the  infernal  Inquisition 
were  not  more  vindictive  and  implacable  than  were  those  ene- 
mies against  whom  Drs.  Bangs  and  Emory  contended.  Their 
horribly  intolerant,  bigoted,  and  persecuting  spirit,  came  in 
thunders  and  anathemas  from  their  desks ;  in  cants,  whispers, 
and  innuendoes,  among  the  throng  :  it  came  larded  with  much 
holi/  grimace,  and  many  sanctimonious  sighs  for  the  credu- 
lous and  pious;  with  much  logical  jargon  and  ^^ biblical" 
criticism  for  smatterers,  such  as  admire  the  style  of  the  ^'  lie* 


800       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

corder;"  with  spleen  and  gall  enough,  when  the  company 
had  sujfficient  pride  and  malice  to  bear  it;  and  with  fire- 
brands for  all  the  young  foxes  they  could  catch  ! 

Methodists  shrink  from  investigation — shun  close  scrutiny 
— dodge  strict  examination  !  The  history  of  Methodism  in 
every  State  in  this  Union  gives  the  lie  direct  to  the  insinua- 
tion. Methodists  invite  discussion,  and  challenge  investiga- 
tion into  all  they  have  ever  said  or  done,  or  the  founder  and 
fathers  of  their  Church  before  them.  And  by  the  time  the 
''  Biblical  Recorder"  and  its  blustering  correspondent  wade 
through  the  pages  of  this  work,  they  will  conclude  that  some 
of  the  Methodists  are  looking  into  matters  wholly  without  the 
precincts  of  their  own  territory !  But  the  cry  is  raised  in 
advance  that  this  is  a  case  in  which  Methodists  are  "  shrink- 
ing from  the  light,  and  are  endeavoring  to  overwhelm  with 
calumny  and  slander.^'  The  '^  Recorder'^  had  no  doubt 
learned,  or  if  it  had  not  its  correspondent  had,  that  a  reply 
to  the  '^man  who  has  dared  to  investigate  the  subject''  of 
Methodist  polity  would  be  forthcoming  in  due  time,  and  that 
this  war-horse  of  ^^  Iron  Wheel"  notoriety  would  be  made  to 
look  less  like  a  successor  of  the  apostles  than  they  could  de- 
sire !  Cry  slander,  if  you  choose — it  will  not  protect  your  man 
Graves  :  the  atrocity  of  his  slanders  shall  stand  forth  without 
a  rival  and  beyond  comparison.  A  pretty  set  to  speak  of  a 
resort  to  slander  !  Who  is  more  prone  to  denunciation  and 
slander  than  the  author  of  the  "  Iron  Wheel  ?"  When  he  has 
exhausted  his  topics  of  argument,  and  that  he  can  soon  do, 
without  a  miracle,  he  resorts  to  a  low  species  of  sarcasm  and 
ridicule,  and  to  downright  and  outright  lying,  and  here  his 
talents  are  wonderful:  Hercules  comes  in  "head  and  shoul- 
ders." The  conductors  of  the  ''  Biblical  Kecorder"  and  the 
editor  of  the  "  Tennessee  Baptist"  have  contrived  a  reciprocity 
of  interest  and  obligation,  and  they  advance  upon  each  other 
with  the  proper  overture,  ^'Titilla  me  et  titillabo  tef^  and 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  301 

then  they  meet  without  the  fear  of  a  repulse.  But  the  man 
of  the  ^^  Recorder"  and  his  sapient  correspondent  would  dc 
well  to  pause  and  reflect^  and  see  that  they  are  not  led  astray 
by  Graves,  and  swayed  by  prejudice  and  malice,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  truth — a  tool  for  others  to  work  with,  till  they  find 
themselves  in  a  condition  to  use  such  tools  as  they  themselves 
once  were — sectarians,  bigots,  false  accusers  of  the  brethren ; 
any  thing  which  the  pliant  qualities  of  Proteus  can  be  wrought 
into,  and  every  thing  which  their  sectarian  jealousy  and  un- 
sanctified  ambition  may  dictate.  I  fear  their  blustering  as- 
saults upon  Methodism  arise  from  too  high  an  opinion  of  their 
own  importance,  and  of  the  overshadowing  greatness  of  their 
Church.  Men  may  become  very  extravagant  on  these  points. 
It  is  recorded  of  two  Roman  emperors — I  believe  Diocletian 
and  Galerius — that  they  once,  in  conversation,  expressed  them- 
selves in  the  following  manner  : 

DiocL.     When  I  am  dead  and  in  my  urn, 
May  earth  and  fire  together  burn, 
And  all  the  world  to  cinders  turn ! 

Gal.        Nay,  while  I  live  I  would  desire 
To  set  the  universe  on  fire  I 

To  give  force  and  grandeur  to  the  language  of  passion, 
rage,  and  falsehood,  in  connection  with  Methodism,  seems  to 
be  the  chief  aim  of  Graves,  whose  striking  characteristics  are 
restless  pride  without  gratification ;  ostentation  without  motive 
or  reward ;  professions  without  sincerity ;  ceremony  without 
comfort;  laughter  without  joy;  smiles  with  concealed  rancor; 
approbation  alloyed  with  envy ;  and  vociferous  praises  dying 
away  into  the  whispers  of  calumny ! 

The  reader  will  bear  in  mind  that  this  ^^  Recorder"  is  the 
home  organ  of  the  grave  '^  Publishing  Society"  whose  learned 
and  conscientious  members  challenged  Drs.  Smith,  Deems, 
and  Lee,  to  meet  their  idol  Graves,  in  the  city  of  Raleigh, 
"in  mortal  combat,"  upon  the  issues  made  in  his  book.     Let 


S02  THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

US  fancy  to  ourselves  that  the  battle  is  to  come  off,  and,  fur 
ther,  tliat  we  see  some  oracle  of  ecclesiastical  jurisprudence., 
who  had  been  regularly  immersed,  rising  slowly  from  his  seat. 
Ah!  'tis  he  :  it  is  the  Eev.  Dr.  Slambangus,  correspondent 
of  the  "  Recorder,"  whose  endorsement  of  Graves's  slanders 
has  well-nigh  got  him  out  of  temporal  employ  I  While  he 
lays  back  his  foretop,  and  raises  and  waves  his  hand,  to  put 
the  humeri  extcnsores  in  tune  for  harmonious  action  j  while 
the  ophthalmic  muscles,  with  awful  convergence,  point  the 
visual  ray  level,  beneath  a  superciliary  nexus  of  majesty  and 
thought,  as  when  the  sun  from  the  eastern  horizon  shows 
half  its  orb  beneath  a  line  of  darkness,  an  attention  spreads 
that  would  almost  render  thoughts  audible,  and  give  an  echo 
to  silence  itself.  He  speaks,  the  chair  being  jBlled  by  an  ad- 
mirer of  Graves,  who  has  '^gone  down  into  and  come  up  out 
of  the  water  \'" 

Mr.  Moderator  : — 

When  I  consider  the  dignity  of  the  chair  you  fill,  the  dig- 
nity of  the  occasion  upon  which  we  have  convened,  which 
dignity  is  all  derived  from  the  dignity  of  HIM  who  fills  the 
chair,  and  of  HIM  who  wrote  the  book  which  has  caused  this 
discussion,  who  is  promoted  by  the  dignitaries  of  the  Church 
to  be  the  chief  dignitary  of  all  the  dignitaries  of  this  EC- 
CLESIASTICAL COURT,  I  feel  MYSELF  dignified  while 
I  dignify  YOU,  Sir,  who  are  dignified  by  those  whom  all  men 
dignify!  Sir,  I  rise  to  move  you,  that  there  shall,  at  the 
close  of  this  debate,  be  established  a  seminary  of  Ecclesiasti- 
cal or  Canon  Law,  in  which  there  shall  be  three  professor- 
ships, all  to  be  filled  by  Baiitist  2'>reach€rs :  the  first,  to  form 
into  a  body  of  reports  the  decisions  of  all  judicatories,  drawn 
from  their  records  and  judgment-rolls,  every  Baptist  congre« 
gation  being  a  judicatory;  the  second,  from  these  reports,  and 
from  o\xT  standards,  ^'Orchard's  History  of  Foreign  Baptists/' 


THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED.  303 

and  ^^  The  Great  Iron  Wheel/'  to  form  regular  digests,  pan- 
dects, or  codices  legum  ecclesiasticorum  ;  the  third,  to  arrange 
and  complete  a  lexicon  of  legal  terms  and  phrases,  adapted  to 
the  "  New  Version/^  to  be  entitled,  Lexicon  Verhorum  Theo- 
logiorum  Ecclesiasticorumque ;  and  furthermore,  that  the 
theological  course  of  every  candidate  for  the  ministry  in  our 
said  Baptist  Church  shall  be  the  study  of  the  '' Iron  Wheel,'' 
without  prayers,  and  of  ^'Orchard's  History  of  Foreign  Bap- 
tists," with  a  mixture  of  corn  lohisky,  which  I  presume  every 
one  will  see  to  be  of  vital  importance  to  the  ministerial  char- 
acter !  Sir,  this  would  be  a  shot  aimed  at  the  Devil's  head- 
quarters of  Methodism  !  It  would  be  baking  our  biscuits  in 
the  big  Dutch  oven  of  Charity,  carefully  conserved  with  the 
spirit  of  the  Reverend  Rooster  of  the  '<  Tennessee  Baptist," 
leavened  with  the  leaven  of  Free-soilism  from  the  "  Western 
Reserve,"  and  perfumed  with  the  honeysuckles  of  the  slander 
suit  in  Henderson  county  I 

But  Methodism  is  '^  human  workmanship,  and  will  not  bear 
close  scrutiny."  Indeed !  Were  we  living  in  the  days  of 
the  inspired  apostles,  we  might  pause  to  argue  this  question 
of  a  ''Divine  right"  to  preach  the  word  and  to  administer  the 
ordinances  of  the  Church.  Or  did  this  charge  come  from 
an  inspired  prophet  or  apostle,  we  should  pause  to  look  into 
its  merits ;  but  coming  from  a  Church  having  no  regular  and 
uniform  system  of  government,  every  separate  congregation 
doing  just  as  it  may  choose,  and  undoing  to-day  what  a  neigh- 
boring congregation  may  have  done  on  yesterday ;  a  Church 
professing  one  faith  in  one  county  or  State,  and  another  and  a 
different  faith  in  an  adjoining  county  or  State  ;  a  Church  mak- 
ing war  upon  Bible,  Tract,  Sabbath-school,  Temperance,  and 
Missionary  Societies  here,  and  advocating  each  and  all  of 
those  yonder,  as  the  intelligence  of  the  community  may  seem 
to  call  for  it ;  a  Church  commissioning  and  sending  forth  a 
set  of  young  and  old,  ignorant,  uneducated,  and  uncouth  men 


304  THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED. 

to  preach  God's  word,  who  have  not  sense  eijough  to  tell 
whether  the  United  States  are  in  North  or  South  America — 
all  held  together  by  the  cohesive  power  and  attraction  of 
water — to  talk  about  "  human  workmanship"  in  other  branches 
of  the  Church  is  preposterous  !  But  if  it  be  true  that  the 
Methodist  system  is  even  a  ^vdl-rcgulated  human  invention^ 
it  has  greatly  the  advantage  of  the  Baptist  organization^  for 
that  is  a  botched  affair  in  every  respect. 

Methodism  is  '^  human  workmanship,  and  will  not  bear 
close  scrutiny,'^  writes  the  "  Recorder,'^  and  so  writes  Elder 
Graves  before  that  print,  and  in  divers  places !  The  design 
of  this  figure  is  to  convey  the  false  idea  to  the  mind  that  the 
doctrines  and  discipline  of  the  Methodist  Church  have  no 
foundation  in  Scripture,  and  are  only  the  works  of  man. 
Judge  Blackstone  somewhere  remarks,  that  a  man  ignorant 
of  human  laws,  who  falls  into  transgression,  may,  through 
the-imperfection  of  human  administration,  be  holden  to  the 
legal  penalty,  but,  nevertheless,  cannot  be,  in  the  eyes  of  so- 
ciety, or  even  of  the  law  itself,  impeached  of  moral  or  politi- 
cal turpitude,  unless  the  transgression  be  of  a  nature  which 
the  universal  laws  of  society  forbid ;  which  qualification  sup- 
poses that  he  might  have  known  better!  In  this  case,  I  can- 
not enter  the  plea  of  ignorance  for  the  "Recorder"  and 
Graves  :  they  both  knew  better.  They  have  wilfully  and  in- 
tentionally lied,  and  have  thereby  committed  an  ofi'ence  which 
the  universal  laws  of  society  forbid,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
express  law  of  God.  The  shameless  and  strenuous  vindica- 
tion of  error  and  selfishness,  so  prominent  in  all  the  writing, 
conversation,  preaching  of  Graves,  and,  I  am  sorry  to  add,  in 
the  conduct  of  his  understrikers  dispersed  throughout  the 
South  and  West — for  they  are  all  of  a  piece — the  virulence 
with  which  they  attack  all  idea  of  disinterestedness,  even  in 
the  great  concerns  of  religion,  justify  the  conclusion  that  the 
pursuit  of  self-interest  is  their  supreme  object. 


THE   GREAT   IKON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  805 

All  that  is  cliaiged  in  this  Baptist  journal  is  repeated,  and 
even  more  and  worse,  in  Graves's  slanderous  book,  which  goes 
out  to  the  world  with  the  endorsement  of  the  ''North  Caro- 
lina Publishing  Society'^  of  the  Baptist  Church.  What  is 
charged  ?  Why,  that  the  Methodists,  far  and  wide,  are  a 
generation  of  sectarian  dupes,  or  of  pious  knaves.  Their 
whole  system  of  doctrines  and  polity  is  the  wicked  contrivance 
of  men — it  is  the  result  of  "human  workmanship.'''  If 
human,  of  course  it  is  not  Divine :  if  of  marij  it  cannot  be 
of  God,  and  ought  not  to  be  sanctioned  in  Protestant  Christ- 
endom. The  Methodist  common  masses  are  all  ignorant 
dolts ;  their  leaders  are  all  wicked  deceivers ;  their  doctrines 
are  all  unscriptural ;  the  whole  Church  is  a  mass  of  corrup- 
tion and  moral  putrefaction  !  This  is  substantially  the  charge, 
and  it  is  endorsed  by  the  "  North  Carolina  Publishing  Societ/' 
of  the  Baptist  Church ! 

As  the  Baptist  denomination  is  superhuman,  and  its 
acts  are  all  by  Divine  authority,  let  us  look  into  some  of  them, 
and  see  how  they  will  compare  with  the  ''  human  workman- 
ship" of  Methodism.  The  "  Powell's  Valley  Association,"  in 
East  Tennessee,  consisting  of  nineteen  churches,  reported  its 
proceedings  in  the  ''  Louisville  Banner,"  for  the  year  1842, 
the  organ  then  of  the  denomination  in  the  South-west,  as  it 
still  is  to  a  very  great  extent,  though  the  name  of  the  paper 
is  changed.  From  this  report  and  this  paper  I  make  the  fol- 
lowing extract,  which,  though  coming  from  a  Church  claim- 
ing to  be  in  a  regular  line  of  succession  from  John  the  Bap- 
tist, and  even  Christ  himself,  I  must  say,  argues  a  dark- 
minded  Christianity : 

Powell's  Valley  Association. — This  is  a  neio  test  association,  and 
carries  the  matter  somewhat  further  than  most  of  their  brethren. 
They  do  not  recognize  as  valid  the  baptism  of  any  one  who  has  re- 
ceived that  ordinance  from  a  Baptist  minister  who  is  friendly  to  mis- 
sions, or  from  a  Baptist  minister  who  is  friendly  to  any  minister  who  is 
friendly  to  missions  !     All  such  persons,  if  they  join  them,  must  be  re- 


806  THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

baptized.  We  have  some  "  out  and  out"  brethren  in  Tennessee,  The 
Powell's  Valley  excommunicated  at  their  last  session  three  other  as- 
sociations and  all  who  correspond  with  them. 

Here  were  THREE  ASSOCIATIONS  EXCOMMUNI- 
GATED — the  bull  of  the  true  Church  hurled  at  them,  because 
they  were  friendly  to  the  cause  of  Christian  missions!  Will 
it  be  said  these  were  Hard-shells  ?  They  were  imrtiersionistSj 
holding  to  the  loose  form  of  Church  government  adhered 
to  by  the  hundred  and  one  factions  into  which  immersionists 
are  divided,  some  contending  for  one  peculiarity,  and  some 
another ;  but  all  agreeing  harmoniously  that  there  is  no  salva- 
tion out  of  their  fold  ! 

A  certain  Mr.  Jewett,  a  renegade  from  the  Presbyterian  min- 
istry, one  whose  order  of  talents  did  not  secure  to  him  a  com- 
fortable support  in  that  Church,  went  over  to  the  Graves  and 
Howell  wing  of  the  Baptist  denomination  a  few  years  ago;  and 
at  Marietta,  Ohio,  published  a  book  in  favor  of  his  new  asso- 
ciates, and  against  all  others  not  of  that  "  faith  and  order/' 
On  page  110  of  this  work,  Mr.  Jewett  thus  boasts  of  the  ab 
sence  of  all  system,  order,  and  government  in  the  Baptist 
Church — unimportant  items,  which  had  given  him  some  un- 
easiness while  a  Presbyterian  : 

Without  creed  or  catechism,  without  General  Assemblies,  or  other 
high  judicatories  of  the  Church,  without  Archbishops  or  Bishops, 
Baptists  have  walked  together  harmoniously,  uniting  with  each  other 
in  efforts  to  extend  Christ's  kingdom,  till  they  embrace  in  their 
churches  a  larger  body  of  believers  than  any  other  denomination  in 
the  United  States. 

'^A  larger  body  of  believers  !"  Believers  in  what?  Why, 
in  ha]-)tism  hy  immersion^  as  the  only  scriptural  mode,  and  the 
only  possible  road  to  heaven  I  Well,  I  grant  it;  and  God  for- 
bid that  ^^any  other  denomination  in  the  United  States'' 
should  evea'  equal  them  in  numbers  of  this  faith  ! 

A  few  years  ago,  the  Baptists  of  North  Carolina  published 
a  pamphlet,  officially  setting  forth  their  views  of  missions, 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  307 

Bible,  tract,  Sunday-school,  and  temperance  societies,  as  of 
"human  workmanship/'  and  not  entitled  to  the  esteem  and 
confidence  of  true  believers  in  Christ !  This  infidel  produc- 
tion was  republished,  with  approbation,  at  Jonesborough,  by 
Elder  Bayless,  the  bell-wether  of  the  Graves  wing  of  that 
Church  in  Upper  East  Tennessee,  and  extensively  circulated. 
From  this  singular  production,  commencing  on  page  11th,  I 
give  such  extracts  as  follow : 

The  fourth  religion  I  shall  notice  as  having  been  established  in  the 
■world,  is  the  missionary  establishment;  and  will  examine  that  for  the 
marks  of  craft.  It  is  abundantly  harped  upon  that  Jesus  Christ  and 
his  apostles  were  all  missionaries :  that  is  agreed  to,  as  to  words  or 
office,  but  here  lies  the  great  matter  in  dispute :  were  they  craft  men? 
did  they  make  gain  by  godliness?  did  they  make  a  craft  of  their 
religion,  like  modern  missionaries?  I  hope  to  show  presently,  from 
the  New  Testament,  they  did  not.  The  first  moneyed  missionary 
society  that  ever  was  established  in  the  world,  as  I  can  find  on  the 
pages  of  history,  was  established  in  the  year  1622,  by  Pope  Gregory 
XV., —  for  the  New  Testament  knows  nothing  of  money-established 
religion, — and  then  called  the  Congregation  for  Propagation  of  the 
Faith.  It  had,  like  oui*  modern  missions,  an  incredible  number  of 
donors,  rich,  and  emulous  to  excel  in  the  greatest  gifts,  as  well  as 
being  greatly  enriched  by  Urban  VIII.  And,  by  this  Congregation's 
money,  a  vast  number  of  missionaries  were  sent  to  the  remotest  parts 
of  the  world,  among  the  most  barbarous  nations,  and  in  India,  China, 
and  Japan. 

The  sect  of  Christians  called  Moravians  founded  the  second  mis- 
sion, about  one  hundred  years  ago.  The  third  missionary  establish- 
ment was  formed  about  twenty  or  thirty  years  ago,  in  London,  called 
the  Evangelical  Society.  The  fourth,  called  the  Baptist  Missionary 
Society,  in  England.  And,  lastly,  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society  in 
America,  with  others  of  like  occupation.  All  of  which  are  founded 
on  beggars  and  money,  like  that  of  Pope  Gregory's.  These  are  all 
important  establishments  of  the  craft  kind, — for  their  like  cannot  be 
found  in  the  New  Testament — the  basis  of  which  are  money,  honor, 
and  titles. 

But,  as  I  am  limited  to  a  mere  sketch,  I  shall  begin  with  the  Bap- 
tist Missionary  Society  founded  in  England.  In  the  year  1784,  at  an 
Association  held  at  Nottingham,  England,  it  was  agreed  to  set  apart 
an  hour  of  prayer  the  first  Monday  evening  of  every  month,  for  a 
revival  of  religion,  and  the  extension  of  Christ's  kingdom  in  the 
world :  so  far  plausible.  Now,  who  were  at  the  head,  plan,  or  seem 
to  have  had  the  chief  management  of  this  society  ?  Why,  John  Ry- 
land,  Reynold  Hogg,  William  Carey,  John  Sutcliff",  and  Andi-ew  Fuller. 
Were  they  priests  ?     Surely ;  for  do  you  not  know  that  the  priests 


308       THE  GREAT  IRON  WUEEL  EXAMINED. 

were,  are,  and  must  be  at  the  head  of  all  the  schemes  of  the  day? 
And  Mr.  Carey  was  one  of  the  committee,  and  helped  form  the  plan  that 
has  got  him  along,  according  to  the  best  accounts  I  can  get,  to  $6,000 
a-year — a  good  business  indeed  for  a  preacher:  neither  the  prophets, 
John  the  Baptist,  nor  Christ,  nor  his  apostles,  ever  shared  such  a  loaf 
as  this.  Mr.  Robertson  and  -wife  were  allowed  $840  per  year,  and 
Mr.  Chater  and  wife  and  two  children  were  allowed  $960  a-year  for 
missionary  services.  Now,  my  hearers,  say  whether  you  think  either 
of  these  men  would  have  left  the  British  shore,  if  it  had  so  turned 
out  there  had  been  no  money.     I  think  not. 

Much  is  said  about  the  Temperance  Society,  but,  if  I  am  rightly 
informed,  those  who  join  are  not  to  drink  one  drop:  if  so,  it  has  a 
wrong  name,  for  it  ought  to  be  called  the  Abstaining  Society.  Doea 
such  a  society  agree  with  Sci-ipture  ?  "  Drink  no  longer  water,"  says 
Paul  to  Timothy,  "but  use  a  little  wine;"  and  of  deacons  he  says: 
"Not  given  to  much  wine;"  and  the  Saviour  drank  wine.  And  be- 
cause some  men  make  a  storehouse  of  their  belly,  I  must  eat  none ; 
and  because  some  men  have  burned  up  their  kettles,  I  must  not  hang 
mine  on  the  fire ;  and  because  some  men  have  been  killed  by  medi- 
cine, I  must  not  use  it  prudently.     What  sophistry  of  priests  I 

And  as  it  regards  tract  societies  and  Sunday-school  unions,  they 
are  about  the  worst  of  the  whole  gang ;  for  they  are  also  the  inven- 
tions of  the  priests,  and  contain  craft  for  printers,  and  they  should 
cry  out,  as  well  as  the  priests:  "Our  craft  is  in  danger;  for  you  know 
by  this,  our  printing  tracts,  we  have  our  wealth;"  and  the  writers 
should  cry  out,  since  premiums  are  offered  for  the  best  tract  on  such 
a  subject;  and  the  traders  in  tracts  also  may  cry  out;  but  the  worst 
of  all  the  eflfects,  is  the  sectarian  principles  infused  in  the  minds  of 
youths ;  for  it  is  but  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  writers  will  squint 
an  eye  to  their  party,  and  give  that  turn  to  them  that  will  mostly 
establish  and  enhance  their  sect. 

These  infidel  doctrines,  set  forth  by  the  North  Carolina 
Baptists,  and  afterwards  republished  by  the  same  Church  in 
Tennessee,  show  most  conclusively  the  opposition  of  that  sect 
to  all  human  and  Divine  workmanship  !  And  I  would  like 
to  know  how  many  members  of  the  present  '^  Publishing  So- 
ciety'' of  the  North  Carolina  Baptists  were  connected  with 
this  manifesto,  and  took  their  stand  upon  it  at  the  time,  as  a 
platform  of  principles ! 

The  disposition  among  Baptist  preachers  and  writers  to 
misrepresent  Methodism  is  too  general,  and  has  been  ever 
since  we  have  known  them,  now  upwards  of  thirty  dreadful 
years  !     I  have  before  me  a  volume  of  ''  The  True  Light  and 


THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  309 

Baptist  Monthly  Visitor/'  published  in  Jonesborough,  by 
Mason  R.  Lyon,  a  Baptist  preacher,  in  1836,  and  edited  by 
^'  Elder  Rees  Bayless,  with  associated  brethren/'  No.  10  of 
this  paper  contains  many  misrepresentations,  both  of  Method- 
ists and  Presbyterians,  upon  the  subjects  of  communion  and 
baptism.  I  will  give  the  following  as  a  sample,  found  on 
page  154 : 

The  Methodists  will  BAPTIZE  BY  IMMERSION  those  who 
HAVE  been  once  sprinkled,  and  by  that  means  tacitly  and 
virtually  deny  the  AUTHENTICITY  AND  VALIDITY  OP 
SPRINKLING ! 

Now,  this  is  not  part  of  an  editorial,  for  which  one  man 
would  be  responsible,  but  it  is  part  of  a  letter  on  Close  Com- 
munion, from  an  association,  published  by  authority,  and  by 
a  vote  of  the  members  endorsing  it,  and  sending  it  out  to 
the  world.  It  is  an  association  of  Baptist  ministers  saying  to 
the  world  that  the  Methodists  will  and  do  rehaptlze  those 
wJiom  they  know  to  have  been  once  hap)tized!  There  is  not 
one  word  of  truth  in  the  whole  statement.  It  is  a  downright 
slander.  It  is  neither  the  faith  nor  the  practice  of  the  Me- 
thodists. But,  on  the  contrary,  they  hold  it  to  be  a  profana- 
tion of  sacred  things,  and  so  teach,  on  all  occasions,  to  re- 
baptize  any  one,  old  or  young,  man  or  child,  loho  has  once 
been  baptized,  whether  the  ordinance  have  been  admin- 
istered by  immersion,  pouring,  or  sprinkling.  The  Method- 
ists hold  baptism,  as  practiced  by  all  orthodox  denominations 
who  acknowledge  the  essential  divinity  of  Christ,  to  be  valid. 
Therefore,  they  will  not  rebaptize  any  one,  though  he  come 
from  another  branch  of  the  great  Christian  family  well 
recommended,  and  ardently  desiring  baptism  and  Church 
membership  among  them. 

But  this  same  association,  in  this  same  letter,  on  page  155 
of  the  ^'True  Light  and  Visitor,"  thus  shows  its  hand  fur- 


310  THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

ther,  upon  the  great  questious  of  haptlsm  and  close  commu^ 
nion : 

There  is  a  small  denomination  of  Baptists  in  this  country  -who  call 
tliemselvcs  Christians.  Though  they  have  given  themselves  a  very 
good  name,  yet  the  united  Baptists  cannot  fellowship  with  them,  and 
consequently  cannot  invite  them  to  the  Lord's  table.  They  agree  with 
us  respecting  the  ordinance  of  baptism,  but  they  icill  invite  Pedohap- 
tists  to  commune  tciih  them ;  and  it  remains  with  them  to  show  their 
authority  for  communing  with  those  persons  whom  they  believe  to  be 

UNBAPTIZED  ! 

What  comment  is  necessary  upon  the  foregoing  ?  I  deem 
it  proper  to  repeat  wliat  I  have  said,  in  substance,  in  the 
general  argument  upon  baptism,  and  the  hypothesis  of  Close 
Communion  Baptists,  who  seek  to  nullify  the  Abrahamic 
covenant,  and,  what  is  worse,  to  dispense  with  the  sacred 
office  of  the  gospel  ministry  ! 

1.  The  Close  Baptists  lay  such  a  stress  upon  baptism  by  immersion, 
as  to  make  it  the  sole  condition  of  admittance  to  the  Lord's  table — a 
table  which,  they  say,  can  only  be  spread  by  ministers  who  have  been 
immersed,  no  others  being  invested  Avith  ministerial  functions,  or  even 
members  of  the  Church  of  Christ.  And  yet,  of  late,  they  will  tolerate 
such  of  their  members  as  commune  with  the  Methodists !  For  proof, 
in  this  county  and  Greene,  we  refer  to  late  occurrences  at  Chero- 
kee, at  Urbana,  and  at  INIilburnton ! 

2.  The  Close  Baptists  hold  and  teach  that  there  is  no  Church  mili- 
tant but  THEIRS,  and  that  there  is  no  ministry  but  such  as  is  consti- 
tuted by  churches  of  their  ^^ faith,  and  order  ;''^  but  they  will  call  on  a 
Methodist  or  Presbyterian  minister,  at  their  revivals,  to  address  the 
throne  of  grace,  or  to  preach  in  their  pulpits — thus  making  s\ich  a  one 
their  mouth  or  organ,  either  to  ask  God's  blessings  to  be  poured  upon 
them,  or  to  declare  his  will  concerning  them,  which  is  vastly  more 
sacred  and  important  than  to  prepare  and  offer  the  bread  and  wine ! 

3.  The  Close  Baptists  believe  and  teach  that  immersion  is  the  only 
door  into  the  Church ;  but  they  will  not  receive  into  theu'  communion 
candidates  who  have  been  regularly  and  properly  immersed,  except 
they  repudiate  their  baptism,  and  the  ministerial  functions  of  all  other 
ministers  :  therefore,  the  repudiation  of  the  ministerial  functions  of 
all  other  clergymen  is  the  door  into  the  regular  Baptist  Church. 

4.  The  Close  Baptists  are  influenced  by  a  spirit  Avhich  is  opposed 
to  the  kingdom  of  Christ — a  spirit  which  would  set  up  another  kingdom 
in  opposition,  and  nullify  the  covenant  of  God,  and  at  the  same  time 
wear  the  name  of  Christian !     God  has  never  had  but  one  spiritual 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  311 

kingdom  in  the  world.  This  kingdom  -was  set  up  in  the  family  of 
Abraham.  It  was  Avith  God's  people  in  the  wilderness,  and  was 
planted  with  them  in  the  land  of  promise.  In  this  kingdom  Christ 
was  born.  Over  this  kingdom  Christ  reigns.  The  Close  Baptists 
have  set  up  a  kingdom  in  opposition  to  Christ :  therefore  the  Close 
Baptists  are  guilty  of  HIGH  TREASON  AGAINST  GOD! ! 


812       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 


CHAPTER    XX. 

Elder  Graves  and  slavea-y — Separation  of  the  Methodist  Church  on 
account  of  slavery  —  Slaveholders  admitted  into  the  apostolic 
Churches — Primitive  Christians  held  slaves — Proof  from  the  Scrip- 
tures that  slavery  existed  in  the  earliest  days  of  the  Christian 
Church — Views  of  Drs.  Neauder  and  Clarke — According  to  the 
Scriptures,  slavery  •will  exist  to  the  end  of  time — Concluding 
remarks. 

Allusion  has  already  been  made  to  the  doubtful  position 
of  Elder  Graves  upon  the  great  and  exciting  question  of 
slavery,  in  a  former  chapter  of  this  work.  The  secret  of  his 
^' armed  neutrality'^  upon  this  great  issue,  and  in  this  stirring 
period  of  the  world,  is  two-fold  :  first,  as  a  Northern  man  by 
birth  and  education,  he  is  anti-davery  at  heart,  or,  to  use  the 
language  of  a  distinguished  politician,  he  is  ^^ pro-North  and 
anti-South;"  and  next,  his  slanderous  book,  now  going 
through  a  second  or  third  edition,  was  written  and  published 
with  a  view  to  make  money ;  and  to  adapt  it  to  the  tastes  of 
his  sectarian  friends  on  both  sides  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line, 
he  has  passed  the  subject  by  with  silent  contempt,  although 
he  has  ridiculed  the  separation  of  the  Methodist  Church, 
South,  from  the  Methodist  Church,  North,  which  separation 
was  caused  alone  by  the  slavery  agitation  of  Northern  Free- 
soil  Methodists  in  the  General  Conference  of  1844,  in  New 
York,  which  everybody  outside  of  a  madhouse  or  leading- 
strings  is  presumed  to  know.  The  Southern  portion  of 
the  Methodist  Church  had  no  other  alternative  left  them 
but  to  separate  from  their  Freesoil  brethren  of  the  North; 


THE  GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED.  3 IB 

and,  as  a  Southern  man,  I  endorse  their  act  of  separation 
most  heartily.  They  sought  to  ostracize  one  of  the  Southern 
bishops,  an  able  and  experienced  officer  of  the  Church,  emi- 
nent for  public  services  and  extensive  usefulness,  because,  in 
a  second  marriage,  he  had  selected  a  lady  who  owned  a  few 
slaves  I  The  marriage  was  admitted  to  be  a  prudent  one  :  the 
lady,  now  in  her  grave,  was  every  way  fitted  for  the  wife  of  a 
bishop ;  but  then  a  former  marriage  had  left  her  in  possession 
of  a  half-dozen  slaves.  Here  was  the  occasion  which  aboli- 
tionism sought,  at  the  North,  to  direct  its  shafts  against  the 
fortress  of  slavery;  and  they  sought  to  carry  it  by  their 
strong  and  powerful  cannonading.  The  imprudence  of  the 
anti-slavery  party  in  that  General  Conference  did  more  to  rouse 
the  South  to  resistance,  than  all  the  belligerent  attitudes 
assumed  by  the  hotheaded  politicians  of  the  country — sending 
a  thrill  through  the  Southern  States,  and  awakening  senti- 
ments of  heroism  and  moral  daring  alike  creditable  to  the 
Church  and  honorable  to  the  country. 

This  is  no  time  for  frank  and  patriotic  men  to  remain 
neutral  upon  a  subject  alike  aflfecting  the  interests  of  the 
Church  and  the  country.  I  volunteer  to  show  my  hand  upon 
this  great  question,  not  caring  one  dime  whether  it  array  the 
entire  North  against  me  or  not.  And  the  people  of  the  South 
should  require  this  adopted  citizen,  Elder  Graves,  to  state,  in 
unmistakable  terms,  whether  or  not  he  now  entertains  the 
same  feelings  and  views,  touching  the  great  slavery  question, 
that  he  did  while  a  citizen  of  the  "Western  Reserve,''  in 
Ohio,  where  abolitionism  is  a  trade  with  nine-tenths  of  the 
inhabitants.  Let  Mr.  Graves  be  interrogated,  and  forced  to 
define  his  position  at  once,  or  leave  the  South  in  hot  haste ! 
Let  him  be  driven  at  once  out  of  the  stagnant  pool  of  aboli- 
tionism, that  his  whispers  and  insinuations  may  no  longer 
send  forth  malaria  and  death  among  the  institutions  of  the 
South !  Political  disquiet  and  commotion  are  daily  giving 
14 


314       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED 

birth  and  sustenance  to  new  and  loftier  schemes  of  agitation 
and  disunion  among  the  vile  abolitionists;  to  bold  and  hazard- 
ous enterprises  in  the  States  and  Territories,  and  even  in 
Congress;  to  insurrection  and  revolution  throughout  the 
entire  country  !  Among  political  men,  without  distinction  of 
party,  the  common  virtues  of  honesty  and  truth  have  become 
superannuated  and  obsolete  !  The  slavery  agitation,  that  had 
been  buried  by  the  Compromise  Acts  of  1850,  is  anew  lifting 
its  head,  and,  under  the  piratical  flag  of  ^^  Black  Republican- 
ism,'^  asserting  the  rights  of  ^*  human  liberty:"  her  infernal 
altars  smoke  with  fresh  incense,  and,  enlisted  in  her  defence, 
are  scores  of  designing  men  in  the  South — some  j&lling  pul- 
pits, some  occupying  high  positions  in  colleges  and  academies, 
and  who,  though  among  us,  are  "not  of  us,"  our  Southern 
friends  may  rest  assured  ! 

I  am  not,  and  never  have  been,  interested  in  the  slave- 
traffic,  or  immersed  in  the  cares,  advantages,  or  disadvantages 
of  the  institution  of  slavery,  and  therefore  I  claim  to  be  a 
disinterested  looker-on.  A  native  of  Virginia,  I  have  lived 
half  a  century  in  the  South,  and  seen  the  workings  of  the 
institution  of  slavery,  in  its  best  and  worst  forms,  and  in  all 
the  Southern  States.  I  have  gone  among  the  free  negroes  at 
the  North,  and,  in  every  instance,  I  have  found  them  more 
miserable  and  destitute,  as  a  whole,  than  the  slave  population 
of  the  South.  In  our  Southern  States,  where  negroes  have 
been  set  at  liberty,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  their  conditions 
have  been  made  worse;  while  the  most  wretched,  lazy,  and 
dishonest  class  of  persons  to  be  found  in  the  Southern  States, 
are  free  persons  of  color.  I  therefore  go  against  the  eman- 
cipation of  slaves  altogether,  unless  they  can  be  sent  to  Libe- 
ria at  once.  I  take  my  stand  with  the  friends  of  the  institu- 
tion of  slavery  in  the  South,  and,  in  defence  of  the  rights  of 
the  South,  connected  with  this  question,  I  will  go  as  far  as 
the  next  man — even  dying  in  the  last  ditch  ! 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  815 

It  is  a  well-known  historical  fact,  that  slaveholders  were 
admitted  into  the  apostolic  Churches;  nor  would  this 
assumed  position  of  the  advocates  of  slavery  be  at  all  denied 
by  any  intelligent  and  well-read  men  at  the  North,  but  for 
the  fact  that  they  think  such  an  admission  would  decide  the 
question  against  abolitionists.  I  have  given  much  attention 
to  this  subject  within  ten  years  past,  and  I  feel  no  sort  of 
delicacy  in  expressing  my  views  and  convictions,  as  revolting 
as  they  may  be  to  Northern  men  and  Freesoilers,  even  among 
us.  I  believe  that  the  primitive  Christians  held  slaves  in 
bondage,  and  that  the  apostles  favored  slavery,  by  admitting 
slaveholders  into  the  Church,  and  by  promoting  them  to  offi- 
cial stations  in  the  Churcli.  And  why  do  I  believe  all  this  ? 
Because  I  am  sustained  in  these  positions  by  uninterrupted 
historical  testimony !  I  have  seen  similar  views,  only  not 
quite  so  strong,  urged  by  gentlemen  who  even  go  against 
slavery,  as  it  exists  in  the  South — among  whom  I  name  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Durbin,  a  gentleman  of  great  learning,  exten- 
sive research,  and  of  undoubted  piety.  He  boldly  affirms 
that  slaveholders  were  admitted  into  the  apostolic  Churches, 
in  an  elaborate  paper  which  appeared  in  the  New  York 
Christian  Advocate  and  Journal,  in  December,  1855. 
I  took  the  same  ground  in  a  newspaper  controversy  with  an 
Ohio  abolitionist,  even  three  years  ago !  The  coincidence 
establishes  only  these  facts :  first,  that  candid  men  of  reading 
must  make  the  same  Jiistorical  discoveries ;  and  next,  if  we 
all  go  to  historic  premises,  the  conclusions  are  easy  and  clear. 

Well,  for  the  information  of  Elder  Graves,  and  other  anti- 
slavery  men  dispersed  throughout  the  South,  I  assume  that 
the  fact  of  the  apostles  admitting  into  Church  fellowship 
slaveholders,  and  promoting  them  to  positions  of  honor  and 
trust,  shows  that  the  simple  relation  of  master  and  slave  was 
no  bar  to  Church  membership.  Masters  and  slaves,  in  the 
days  of  the  apostles,  were  admitted  into  the  Church  as  breth- 


316  THE   GREAT   IRON    WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

ren ;  they  partook  in  common  of  the  benefits  of  the  Church ; 
they  held  to  the  same  religious  principles ;  they  squared  their 
lives  by  the  same  rule  of  conduct;  acknowledged  the  same 
obligations  one  to  another;  and  worshipped  at  the  same  altar. 
This  was  true  of  the  first  and  succeeding  centuries,  when  the 
relations  of  master  and  slave,  and  the  practice  of  the  Church 
in  reference  thereto,  were  very  much  like  they  are  in  the 
Southern  States  of  our  Union  at  present.  But  to  the  proof 
that  slaveholders  were  admitted  into  the  apostolic  Churches. 
1.  Historians  all  agree  that  slavery  existed,  and  was  gene- 
ral throughout  the  Roman  empire,  at  the  time  the  apostolic 
Churches  were  instituted.  I  have  at  my  command  the  autho- 
rities to  prove  this,  but  to  quote  from  them  would  swell  this 
chapter  beyond  what  I  have  intended.  I  will  cite  the  autho- 
rities only ;  and  anti-slavery  men  who  deny  my  position  can 
examine  my  authorities.  See  Gibbon's  "Decline  and  Fall 
of  the  Roman  Empire,"  vol.  i.  See  "Inquiry  into  Roman 
Slavery,  by  Wm.  Blair,''  Edinburgh  edition  of  1833.  See 
vol.  iv.  of  "Lardner's  Works,''  page  213.  See  vol.  i.  of 
"  Dr.  Robertson's  Works,"  London  edition.  Other  authori- 
ties might  be  given,  but  these  are  sufficient,  as  they  show 
that  slavery  was  a  civil  institution  of  the  State;  that  the 
Roman  laws  regarded  slaves  as  property,  at  the  disposal  of 
their  masters ;  that  these  slaves,  whether  white  or  colored, 
had  no  civil  existence  or  rights,  and  contended  for  none :  and 
that  there  were  three  slaves  to  one  citizen — showing  something 
of  a  similarity  between  the  Roman  empire  and  our  Southern 
States  !  Gibbon  says  that  slavery  existed  in  "every  province 
and  every  family,"  and  that  they  were  bought  and  sold 
according  to  their  capacities  for  usefulness,  and  the  demand 
for  laborers — selling  at  hundreds  of  dollars,  and  from  that 
down  to  the  price  of  a  beast  of  burden  !  Now,  it  is  notorious 
that  the  gospel  made  considerable  progress  among  the  citizens 
of  the  Roman  empire;  and,  as  nearly  every  family  owned 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  817 

slaves,  it  is  certain  that  slaveholders  were  converted  and 
admitted  into  the  Church.  It  will  not  do  to  say  that  the 
poor,  including  the  slaves,  were  alone  converted  to  God,  be- 
cause the  apostles  make  frequent  allusions  to  the  receiving 
into  the  Church  of  intelligent,  learned,  and  opulent  persons. 
The  learned  Dr.  Mosheim,  in  his  Church  History,  vol.  i., 
relating  to  the  first  three  centuries^  settles  this  question  most 
effectually.     He  says : 

The  apostles,  in  their  writings,  prescribe  rules  for  the  conduct  of 
the  rich  as  well  as  the  poor,  for  masters  as  well  as  servants — a  con- 
vincing proof  that  among  the  members  of  the  Church  planted  by  them 
were  to  be  found  persons  of  opulence,  and  masters  of  families.  St. 
Paul  and  St.  Peter  admonished  Christian  women  not  to  study  tne 
adorning  of  themselves  with  pearls,  with  gold  and  silver,  or  costly 
array.  1  Tim.  ii.  9 :  1  Peter  iii.  3.  It  is,  therefore,  plain  that  there 
must  have  been  women  possessed  of  wealth  adequate  to  the  purchase 
of  bodily  ornaments  of  great  price.  From  1  Tim.  vi.  20,  and  Col.  ii. 
8,  it  is  manifest  that  among  the  first  converts  to  Christianity  there 
were  men  of  learning  and  philosophers ;  for,  if  the  wise  and  the 
learned  had  unanimously  rejected  the  Christian  religion,  what  occa- 
sion could  there  have  been  for  this  caution  ?  1  Cor.  i.  26,  unques- 
tionably carries  with  it  the  plainest  intimation  that  persons  of  rank 
or  power  were  not  wholly  wanting  in  that  assembly.  Indeed,  lists  of 
the  names  of  various  illustrious  persons  who  embraced  Christianity, 
in  its  weak  and  infantile  state,  are  given  by  Blondel,  p.  235  de  Epis- 
copis  et  Presbyteris ;  also  by  Wetstein,  in  his  Preface  to  Origen's  Dia. 
Con.  Mar.,  p.  13. 

2.  I  come  next  to  show,  from  scriptural  evidence,  that 
slavery  existed  in  the  earliest  days  of  the  Christian  Church, 
and  that  both  masters  and  slaves  were  members  of  the  Church. 
I  assert,  without  the  fear  of  contradiction,  that  the  apostles 
did  not  denounce  slavery  as  an  evil,  after  the  fashion  of  New 
England  preachers ;  nor  did  the  apostles  require  that  persons 
held  in  bondage  should  be  emancipated,  after  the  manner  of 
Theodore  Parker,  and  others  of  Elder  Graves's  New  England 
brethren  !  Slavery  was  an  institution  of  the  State,  in  the 
Roman  empire,  as  it  is  in  certain  States  in  this  Union,  and  the 
apostles  did  not  feel  at  liberty  to  denounce  it,  if  indeed  they 


318  THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

felt  the  least  opposition  to  it,  which  I  deny.     Hear  the  apos- 
tles on  this  subject: 

Let  every  man  abide  in  the  same  calling  -wherein  he  was  called. 
Art  thou  called  being  a  servant?  Care  not  for  it;  but  if  thou  raayest 
be  made  free,  use  it  rather.  For  he  that  is  called  in  the  Lord,  being 
a  servant,  is  the  Lord's  freeman  ;  likewise  also  he  that  is  called,  being 
free,  is  Christ's  servant. — 1  Cor.  vii.  20-22, 

Servants,  be  obedient  to  them  that  are  your  masters  according  to  the 
flesh,  with  fear  and  trembling,  in  singleness  of  your  heart,  as  unto 
Christ.  Not  with  eye-service,  as  men-pleasers ;  but  as  the  servants 
of  Christ,  doing  the  will  of  God  from  the  heart.  With  good-will 
doing  service,  as  to  the  Loi'd,  and  not  to  men :  knowing  that  whatso- 
ever good  thing  any  man  doeth,  the  same  shall  he  receive  of  the  Lord, 
whether  he  be  bond  or  free.  And,  ye  masters,  do  the  same  things 
unto  them,  forbearing  threatening:  knowing  that' your  Master  also 
is  in  heaven :  neither  is  there  respect  of  persons  with  him. — Eph.  vi. 
5-9. 

Servants,  obey  in  all  things  your  masters  according  to  the  flesh;  not 
with  eye-service,  as  men-pleasers ;  but  in  singleness  of  heart,  fearing 
God.  And  whatsoever  ye  do,  do  it  heartily,  as  to  the  Lord,  and  not 
unto  men :  knowing  that  of  the  Lord  ye  shall  receive  the  reward  of 
the  inheritance;  for  ye  serve  the  Lord  Christ. — Col.  iii.  22-25. 

Masters,  give  unto  your  servants  that  which  is  just  and  equal: 
knowing  that  ye  also  have  a  Master  in  heaven. — Col.  iv.  1. 

Let  as  many  servants  as  are  under  the  yoke  count  their  own  masters 
worthy  of  all  honor,  that  the  name  of  God  and  his  doctrine  be  not 
blasphemed.  And  they  that  have  believing  masters,  let  them  not  de- 
spise them,  because  they  are  brethren ;  but  rather  do  them  service, 
because  they  are  faithful  and  beloved,  partakers  of  the  benefit.  These 
things  teach  and  exhort. — 1  Tim.  vi.  1,  2. 

Exhort  servants  to  be  obedient  unto  their  own  masters,  and  to  please 
them  well  in  all  things,  not  answering  again;  not  purloining,  but 
showing  all  good  fidelity ;  that  they  may  adorn  the  doctrine  of  God 
our  Saviour  in  all  things. — Titus  ii.  9,  10. 

Servants,  be  subject  to  your  masters  yv'ith.  all  fear;  not  only  to  the 
good  and  gentle,  but  also  to  the  froward.  For  this  is  thankworthy,  if 
a  man  for  conscience  toward  God  endure  grief,  suffering  wrongfully. 
—1  Peter  ii.  18,  19. 

I  have  but  a  single  word  of  comment  to  offer  upon  these 
passages  of  Scripture.  The  original  words  used  by  the 
Greek  writers,  both  sacred  and  profane,  to  express  slave;  the 
most  abject  condition  of  slavery ;  to  express  the  absolute 
owner  of  a  slave,  and  the  absolute  control  of  a  slave,  are  the 
strongest  that  the  language  affords,  and  are  used  in  the  pas- 


THE   GREAT  IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  319 

sapres  here  quoted.  If  the  apostles  understood  the  common 
use  of  words,  and  desired  to  convey  these  ideas,  and  to  re- 
cognize the  relations  of  master  and  servant^  they  would, 
naturally  enough,  employ  the  very  words  used.  To  say  that 
they  did  not  know  the  primary  meaning  and  usus  loquendi 
of  the  original  words,  is  paying  them  a  compliment  I  wish 
not  to  participate  in  !  And  to  show  that  I  am  not  singular 
in  my  views  of  the  meaning  expressed  in  the  passages  quoted, 
showing  that  they  express  in  the  one  case  slaves,  and  in  the 
other  masters  or  owners,  actually  holding  them  as  property, 
under  the  sanction  of  the  laws  of  the  State,  I  quote  from  the 
following  authorities  : 

That  great  commentator,  Dr.  Adam  Clarke,  on  1  Cor. 
vii.  21,  says  : 

Art  thou  converted  to  Christ  while  thou  art  a  slave — the  property 
of  another  person,  and  bought  with  his  money  ?     Care  not  for  it. 

The  learned  Dr.  Neander,  in  his  work  entitled  '^  Planting 
and  Training  of  the  Church,"  in  referring  to  Onesimus, 
mentioned  in  the  epistle  to  Philemon,  says  of  him  : 

It  does  not  appear  to  be  surprising  that  a  runaway  slave  should 
betake  himself  at  once  to  Rome. 

To  the  foregoing  might  be  added  other  authorities  of  equal 
weight  and  importance,  but  I  will  not  burden  this  chapter 
with  extended  quotations.  Nor  will  I  weary  the  patience  of 
the  reader  with  passages  from  profane  history,  in  the  centu- 
ries immediately  following  the  apostolic,  as  I  could  do  if  I 
deemed  it  at  all  necessary.  And,  from  the  foregoing  facts 
and  authorities,  I  will  make  such  brief  observations  as,  to  my 
mind,  seem  warranted,  and  then  conclude  this  chapter. 

First. — There  is  not  a  single  passage  in  the  New  Testament, 
nor  a  single  act  in  the  records  "of  the  Church,  during  her 
early  history,  for  even  centuries,  containing  any  direct,  pro- 
fessed, or  intended  denunciation  of  slavery.     But  the  apostles 


320  HIE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

found  the  institution  existing,  under  the  authority  and  sanc- 
tion of  law;  and,  in  their  labors  among  the  people,  masters 
and  slaves  bowed  at  the  same  altar,  communed  at  the  same 
table,  and  were  taken  into  the  Church  together;  while  they 
exhorted  the  one  to  treat  the  other  as  became  the  gospel,  and 
the  other  to  obedience  and  honesty,  that  their  religious  pro- 
fessions might  not  be  evil  spoken  of ! 

Secondly. — The  early  Church  not  only  admitted  the  exist- 
ence of  slavery,  but  in  various  ways,  by  her  teachings  and 
discipline,  expressed  her  approbation  of  it,  enforcing  the 
observance  of  certain  Fugitive  Slave  Laws  which  had  been 
enacted  by  the  State.  And,  in  the  various  acts  of  the  Church, 
from  the  times  of  the  apostles  downward  through  several 
centuries,  she  enacted  laws  and  adopted  regulations  touching 
the  duties  of  masters  and  slaves,  as  such.  This,  in  my  hum- 
ble judgment,  amounts  to  a  justification  and  defence  of  the 
institution  of  slavery. 

Thirdly. — My  investigations  of  this  subject  have  led  me 
regularly,  gradually,  certainly,  to  the  conclusion  that  God 
intended  the  relation  of  master  and  slave  to  exist.  Hence, 
when  God  opened  the  way  for  the  organization  of  the  Church, 
the  apostles  and  first  teachers  of  Christianity  found  slavery 
incorporated  with  every  department  of  society ;  and,  in  the 
adoption  of  rules  for  the  government  of  the  members  of  the 
Church,  they  provided  for  the  rights  of  owners,  and  the 
wants  of  slaves. 

Fourthly. — Slavery,  in  the  age  of  the  apostles,  had  so 
penetrated  society,  and  was  so  intimately  interwoven  with  it, 
that  a  religion  preaching  freedom  to  the  slave  would  have 
arrayed  against  it  the  civil  authorities,  armed  against  itself 
the  whole  power  of  the  State,  and  destroyed  the  usefulness 
of  its  preachers.  St.  Paul  knew  this,  and  did  not  assail  the 
institution  of  slavery,  but  labored  to  get  both  masters  and 
slaves  to  heaven,  as  all  ministers  should  do  in  our  day. 


THE   GREAT  IRON   WHEEL  EXAMINED.  321 

Fifthly.  —  Slavery  having  existed  ever  since  the  first 
organization  of  the  Church,  the  Scriptures  clearly  teach  that 
it  wiU  exist  even  to  the  end  of  time.  Rev.  vi.  12-17  points 
to  ''  The  Day  of  Judgment/'  ''  The  Last  Day/'  ''  The  Great 
Day/'  and  the  condition  of  the  human  race  at  that  time,  as 
well  as  the  classes  of  persons  to  be  judged,  rewarded,  and 
punished  !  A  portion  of  this  text  reads,  "And  the  kings  of 
the  earth,  and  the  great  men,  and  the  rich  men,  and  the  chief 
captains,  and  the  mighty  men,  and  every  BONDMAN,  and 
every  freeman,"  etc.,  will  be  there;  evidently  implying  that 
slavery  will  exist,  and  that  the  relations  of  master  and  slave 
will  be  recognized  to  the  end  of  time  ! 

In  conclusion,  the  Methodist  Church,  South,  occupies  true 
scriptural  ground  upon  the  subject  of  slavery,  and  is  now 
exercising  proper  Christian  authority  over  her  slaveholding 
members,  enforcing  the  duties  which  grow  out  of  the  relation 
of  a  Christian  master  to  his  dependent  slave,  whether  the 
latter  be  religious  or  irreligious,  and  out  of  the  relations  of 
both  to  the  Church. 


14* 


822       THE  GREAT  mON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 


TO   THE   METHODISTS. 


Our  heading  indicates  that  this  is  a  kind  of  address  to  the 
members  of  the  Methodist  Connection.  I  do  not  claim  to 
have  a  peculiar  license  to  deal  out  general  and  extraordinary 
epistles  to  the  Church  throughout  the  South.  It  is  a  liberty 
which  ought  to  be  taken  by  but  few  men,  and  they  should  be 
men  whose  age,  experience,  and  long  periods  of  effective  ser- 
vice, give  them  claims  to  be  heard.  If,  however,  any  remark- 
able events  have  rendered  it  necessary  that  a  distinct  and  an 
immediate  appeal  should  be  made,  I  will  be  tolerated  in  this, 
as  I  will  be  in  the  preparation  of  this  work,  notwithstanding 
more  suitable  persons  could  have  been  found  to  execute  the 
task  in  any  one  of  the  Conferences  belonging  to  the  Southern 
division  of  the  Church.. 

A  century  and  a  quarter  have  now  passed-  away  since  the 
establishment  of  Wesleyan  Methodism,  and  the  experience 
of  that  extended  period  has  shown  that  the  fabric  is  not  com- 
posed of  those  unsubstantial  materials  which  its  violent  but 
mistaken  enemies  surmised. .  Assailants  have  arisen  at  differ- 
ent periods,  in  Europe  and  America ;  and  in  the  earlier  stages 
of  its  existence,  on  both  continents,  persecutions,  "  fierce  as 
ten  furies,"  were  ever  and  anon  let  loose,  followed  up  by  the 
blows  of  men  of  tenfold  more  intellect  and  force  of  character 
than  the  miserable  calumniator  of  the  '■'■  Tennessee  Baptist" 


THE   GREAT   IBON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  323 

can  bring  to  bear  in  bis  feeble  crusade.  A  half  a  century 
ago,  in  this  country,  often  came  ^'  the  world's  dread  laugh, 
which  scarce  the  firm  philosopher  sustains  :"  to  this,  in  most  of 
the  cities,  towns,  and  refined  circles,  was  added,  proud  du- 
dain.  But  in  the  midst  of  this  elemental  strife,  which  has 
been  a  war  both  of  principle  and  practice,  the  peculiar  insti- 
tutions of  Methodism  remained  unshaken :  the  outworks 
have  been  pressed,  b^t  no  breach  was  ever  made.  The  more 
violent  the  assaults  made,  the  stronger  the  defences  raised  up, 
while  more  advanced  positions  have  been  taken.  The  whole 
structure  of  Methodism,  both  in  doctrines  and  discipline,  in- 
dicates durability.  Many  who  once  opposed  the  system  are 
now  its  open  advocates  and  admirers.  Others  have  moderated 
in  their  attacks ;  and  those  who  are  now  openly  in  the  field, 
as  opposers,  are  men  of  rather  small  calibre,  seeking  to  hide 
the  defects  in  their  own  characters  by  a  war  upon  a  great 
system.  The  whole  has  resulted  in  this  :  it  has  demonstrated 
that  while  the  members  of  the  Methodist  Church  are  faithful 
to  themselves  and  to  the  professions  they  have  assumed,  no 
injury  can  be  inflicted.  The  lucubrations  of  bad  men  like 
Graves  may  excite  occasional  notice,  and  their  numerous  un- 
mitigated slanders  may  produce  occasional  apprehension  j  but, 
like  ripples  on  the  distant  wave,  they  are  formed  but  to  dis- 
appear )  and,  as  time  has  shown,  they  can  have  no  effect  on 
the  course  of  the  mighty  stream  to  which  they  are  indebted 
for  momentary  appearance  ! 

It  is  no  new  discovery  now  that  the  founder  of  Method- 
ism was  a  man  endowed  with  the  first  order  of  intellect; 
but  this  one  thing  I  can  say,  namely,  that  his  ambition  was 
not  to  astonish  mankind  by  the  display  of  talent,  natural 
or  acquired.  He  lived  for  others ;  and  it  is  now  history  that 
he  kindled  a  light,  not  to  dazzle  but  to  benefit  his  fellow- 
creatures.  In  disposition,  John  Wesley  was  kind,  placable, 
and  affectionate.     He  practiced  a  strict  economy,  not  from 


324       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

any  sordid  motives,  but  for  the  purpose  of  administering  ex- 
tensively to  the  wants  of  the  poor.  His  integrity  was  unim- 
peachable ;  and  money  would  have  been  of  no  value  in  his 
estimation,  but  that  it  afforded  hira  the  means  of  increasing 
his  utility.  When  a  young  man  at  Oxford,  his  income  was 
thirty  pounds  per  annum,  and  he  gave  two  of  that  away. 
When  his  income  was  increased  to  sixty,  two  years  after  that, 
he  still  lived  on  twenty-eight,  and  gave  away  thirty-two.  The 
next  year  he  received  one  hundred  and  twenty;  still  he  lived 
on  as  before,  and  gave  away  ninety-two.  In  the  height 
of  his  power,  the  Commissioners  of  the  Excise,  supposing 
that  he  had  silver-plate  which,  in  order  to  avoid  the  duty,  he 
had  not  returned,  wrote  to  him  on  the  subject.  Mr.  Wesley 
replied :  "  I  have  two  silver  spoons  in  London,  and  one  in 
Bristol :  this  is  all  the  plate  that  I  have  at  present,  and  I  shall 
not  buy  any  more  while  so  many  around  me  want  bread!" 
He  even  studied  for  the  benefit  of  others.  If  his  learning 
became  prominent,  its  exhibition  was  incidental  rather  than 
designed.  It  came  to  his  relief  and  aid  only  when  called  for; 
and  among  the  many  excellences  for  which  his  works  are  re- 
markable, the  simplicity  of  his  style,  to  the  exclusion  of 
verbiage  and  vain  display,  is  by  no  means  the  least  remark- 
able. To  his  mind,  naturally  powerful  and  comprehensive, 
was  added  a  correctness  of  perception  which,  at  the  com- 
mencement of  his  public  life,  enabled  him  not  only  to  prepare 
the  most  judicious  rules  for  the  government  of  his  then  in- 
fant societies,  but  to  examine  and  compare  their  agreement 
with  each  other,  their  bearing  upon  the  general  systefei,  and 
to  choose  the  most  proper  agents  in  reducing  the  whole  to 
practical  purposes.  The  consequence  is,  as  every  intelligent 
Methodist  knows,  that  where  this  system  exists  in  healthful 
exercise,  as  it  now  does  in  our  Southern  States,  each  part  is 
brought  sufficiently  forward,  and  no  portion  is  overlooked : 
there  is  a  place  for  every  man,  whether  rich  or  poor,  in  high 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL  EXAMINED.  825 

position  or  of  low  degree,  and  every  man  ought  to  he  in  his 
place  ! 

Another  main  advantage  included  in  the  entire  plan  of 
Methodism,  as  organized  by  Wesley,  is  that  it  offers  suitable 
employment  to  every  member.  Varied  as  is  the  capacity  of 
the  human  mind  in  different  persons,  such  are  the  general 
duties  connected  with  works  of  mercy  and  benevolence,  which 
have  gradually  arisen  within  the  pale  of  Methodism,  that  no 
man  need  "  stand  all  the  day,''  or  any  part  of  the  day,  ^Hdle."" 
As  an  initiatory  step,  and  an  exercise  of  humility,  he  might 
enter  a  Sabbath-school,  and  begin  a  course  of  good  works, 
by  teaching  some  poor  child  to  read  his  vernacular 
tongue,  as  well  as  the  first  lessons  of  salvation.  Engagements 
more  extensive  may  follow,  and  will,  as  one  progresses  in 
works  of  goodness — more  honorable  they  cannot  be.  The 
ignorant  are  not  only  to  be  instructed,  but  the  sick  are  to  be 
consoled,  and  the  suffering  are  to  be  relieved.  Contributions 
which  we  can  all  well  spare,  will  go  far  to  enlighten  and  con- 
vert our  slave  population,  by  sending  among  them  reliable 
ministers,  to  labor  exclusively  for  their  benefit,  as  domestic 
missionaries ;  and  as  their  benefactors,  we  cannot  fail  to  feel 
ourselves  amended.  Religion  without  'practice,  like  water 
without  motion,  is  certain  to  stagnate.  The  founder  of  Me- 
thodism knew  this  fact,  and  acted  upon  this  principle  j  and 
therefore  it  is  that,  next  to  an  unblamable  life,  the  best  evi- 
dence that  a  man  can  give  of  the  genuineness  of  his  religion 
is  to  be  found  attempting  to  communicate  it  to  others,  and 
discharging  those  duties  and  obligations  which  true  religion 
enjoins.  The  whole  tendency  of  Methodism  is  to  this  kind 
of  activity,  and  the  natural  tendency  of  Christianity  in  the 
heart  is  to  the  same  activity.  "  Up  and  he  doing"  is  the 
motto  of  Methodism,  and  it  is  the  essence  of  Christianity. 
To  an  inactive  life  Methodism  is  constantly  opposed  ]  because, 
as  in  the  grave  there  will  be  enough  of  leisure,  noio  is  the 


326       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

time,  and  "  while  it  is  called  to-day/'  for  improvement  and 
usefulness. 

This  is,  in  part  at  least,  what  is  meant  by  the  apostle  when 
he  exhorts  us  to  too7'k  out  on?-  s^alvation  with  /ear  and 
trembling.  The  work  of  salvation  is  no  lazy  man's  business ; 
but  it  is  a  work  of  great  difficulty,  which  requires  close  appli- 
cation and  constant  labor.  Are  all  the  nobler  faculties  of  the 
mind  and  the  efforts  of  life  devoted  to  the  attainment  of  the 
goods  and  honors  of  this  world  ?  and  shall  we  expect  to  ob- 
tain heaven  by  mere  accident?  Certainly  not.  He  who 
made  us  without  our  aid,  never  intends  to  save  us  unless  we 
first  save  ourselves  from  this  untoward  generation.  He  will 
not  save  us  unless  we  ourselves  fight  the  good  fight  of  faith, 
unless  we  agonize  to  enter  in  at  the  strait  gate.  The  most 
laborious  servitude  is  rendered  tolerable  by  an  assurance 
that  we  shall  receive  its  entire  and  ample  product.  In  the 
work  of  salvation  we  secure  our  own  peace  and  happiness, 
both  in  this  life  and  in  that  which  is  to  come ;  and  unless  we 
work  out  our  salvation,  in  the  sense  in  which  both  Paul  and 
Wesley  enforced  the  doctrine,  we  plunge  our  souls  into  guilt 
and  fear  in  this  life,  and  into  eternal  despair  in  the  next. 
Solemn  thought !  Hence,  says  the  apostle,  "  Work  out  your 
own  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling.^' 

Consider  the  difficulty  of  the  work  and  the  danger  of  mis- 
carriage, according  to  our  theory,  and  it  is  founded  upon  the 
word  of  God.  No  outward  forms,  such  as  immersion,  can 
make  us  clean,  or  save  us  from  apostasy.  We  have  moun- 
tains of  difficulty  to  pass  over ;  we  have  many  difficult  duties 
to  perform ;  we  have  many  open  enemies,  as  well  as  foes  in 
ambush,  to  contend  with — exposed  as  we  are  to  the  attacks 
of  the  Devil,  our  common  enemy,  and  to  a  host  of  bad  men, 
who,  like  this  unregenerate  preacher.  Elder  Graves,  seek  to 
aggravate,  and  drive  us  from  the  path  of  duty.  These  pirates 
of  hell,  who  watch  to  make  cruel  depredation  on  all  the  ocean 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  327 

of  life,  are  the  more  dangerous  as  they  sail  under  the  false 
flag  of  Christianity.  At  one  point,  they  exhibit  the  pre- 
sumptuous rock  of  the  apostolic  succession,  to  drive  us  from 
the  channel  of  self-denial,  faith,  hope,  and  charity;  at  an- 
other, they  invite  us  to  the  sand-banks  of  immersion,  on 
which  thousands  have  been  eternally  shipwrecked.  To  avoid 
all  these  dangers,  we  have  only  to  consult  the  map  of  our 
voyage  frequently,  the  word  of  God,  obey  the  orders  of  our 
Captain,  Jesus  Christ,  and  follow  the  directions  of  our  pilot, 
John  Wesley,  and  pray  much  for  the  Holy  Spirit — observing 
the  progress  we  make,  and  keeping  an  exact  journal  of  our 
voyage ! 

Finally,  upon  this  point,  let  us  be  sure  that  our  hearts  are 
changed,  and  that  the  love  of  God  dwells  in  us :  let  us  con- 
tinue to  worship  God  in  the  spirit,  rejoice  in  Christ  Jesus, 
instead  of  our  denominational  peculiarities,  and  see  that  we 
have  no  confidence  in  baptism,  save  as  an  outward  ordinance. 
Then,  when  clouds  of  opposition  shall  thicken  around  us,  the 
storms  of  sectarian  malice  arise,  and  the  furious  waves  of 
calumny  dash  against  each  other,  our  minds  shall  be  calm, 
and  our  souls  shall  rest  secure  in  the  arms  of  Safety ;  and 
with  our  anchor  of  hope  cast  in  the  port  of  heaven,  and  we 
working  our  passage  with  all  diligence,  we  cannot  fail,  ac- 
cording to  the  doctrines  of  Methodism,  which  are  taken  from 
the  Bible,  to  land  in  that  happy  country  where  all  is  peace 
and  joy  for  ever  ! 

One  thing  is  clear  ;  While  the  Methodist  Church  preserves 
her  primitive  simplicity,  prosperity  will  follow ;  and  it  is  a 
remarkable  fact,  that  although  attempts  have  been  made,  the 
tendency  of  which  is  to  undermine  her  security,  they  have 
uniformly  failed,  both  in  Europe  and  America.  Another  fact, 
not  much  less  singular,  is  that,  so  far  as  the  parties  are  known, 
almost  every  attempt  of  the  kind  may  be  traced  to  men  of 
whose  minds  the  canker  of  personal  corruption,  or  of  immoral 


328       THE  GREAT  IRON  WHEEL  EXAMINED. 

practices,  has  eaten  up  the  better  part.  In  two  instances  in 
Tennessee,  the  one  in  East  and  the  other  in  Middle  Tennes- 
see, condensed  malice,  which  seemed  to  gather  strength  by 
confinement  in  corrupt  bosoms,  has  suddenly  exploded,  and 
slanders  of  all  dimensions  have  been  let  loose,  as  if  the  fatal  box 
had  just  been  opened.  In  this  .warfare,  pious  men  of  any 
denomination  have  never  joined ;  and  it  is  scarcely  needful 
to  add  that  they  never  will.  A  desultory  warfare,  to  which 
the  daring  and  vulgar  assaults  of  Ross  and  Graves  have  led, 
has  been  carried  on  in  Tennessee,  Georgia,  and  North  Caro- 
lina, but  the  little  havoc  they  have  made  has  been  about  what 
might  be  expected  from  men  meddling  with  things  beyond 
their  reach.  The  few  clerical  bull-dogs  in  East  Tennessee, 
who  espouse  the  cause  in  which  Graves  has  signally  failed, 
are  not  likely  to  excite  respectable  opposition.  These  men 
have  done  their  worst,  and  there  has  been  no  extraordinary 
shock  in  the  kingdom  either  of  nature  or  grace.  The  sun 
rises  as  usual.  Men  go  forth  to  their  ordinary  occupations. 
Methodist  chapels  are  still  being  built,  sermons  preached, 
circuits  travelled,  societies  formed,  classes  met,  children 
sprinkledj  and  souls  saved !  Even  Ross  and  Graves  may 
rest  assured  that  theirs  are  not  the  Atlantean  shoulders  on 
which  are  reposed  the  interests  of  the  religious  world  !  These 
considerations  are  humbling;  but  as  they  are  true,  they  must 
needs  be  salutary,  to  some  extent,  as  they  bear  upon  men 
who  are  in  danger  of  thinking  of  themselves  more  highly 
than  the  occasion  requires  ! 

The  observation  is  trite  that  ^^  facts  are  stubborn  things ;'' 
and  apart  from  mere  assertion  and  averment,  the  present  pa- 
cific and  united  condition  of  the  Methodist  forces,  in  all  the 
Southern  States  of  this  Union,  is  a  fact  palpable  as  the  light 
of  day,  and  encouraging  as  palpable.  The  discipline  as  well 
as  the  doctrine  of  Wesley  will  roll  onward  for  many  a  year  to 
come — ^yes,  when  the  writer  of  this  address,  and  the  readers 


THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED.  329 

thereof,  of  the  nineteenth  century,  lie  silent  in  their  graves. 
And  still  Methodism  will  be  assailed,  as  long  as  bad  men  re- 
main on  earth,  or  the  Devil  finds  his  kingdom  opposed  by  the 
spread  of  Methodist  doctrines  !  From  open  violence  the  Me- 
thodists have  nothing  to  fear.  Truth,  in  one  form  or  other, 
will  force  its  way ;  nor  can  Methodism  be  frowned  from  the 
world.  Graves  is  the  last  one  of  the  ^^  enemies  of  all  righte- 
ousness" who  has  tried  his  hand,  and  he  is  by  no  means  among 
the  most  successful.  He  professes  to  describe  Methodism, 
but  has  not  hit  a  single  feature,  nor  succeeded  in  the  outline. 
His  is  neither  a  cabinet  painting  nor  a  whole-length  portrait. 
His  ''  Iron  Wheel"  is  a  broad,  palpable,  and  iniquitous  cari- 
cature. The  beauties  of  the  original  are  vilely  dropped; 
supposed  deformities  are  embodied  and  distorted ;  new  ones 
are  invented  and  superadded.  And  the  only  method  by  which 
slanders  of  this  character  can  be  met  is  that  every  inquirer 
after  truth  resolve  to  see  things  as  they  really  are,  and  to  ex- 
amine with  his  own  eyes  rather  than  depend  on  those  of  pre- 
judiced men ;  not  to  take  Methodism,  or  any  thing  connected 
with  it,  upon  trust,  nor  pin  his  faith  to  a  bad  man's  sleeve. 
Correct  notions  of  Methodism  can  only  be  obtained  by  an  ex- 
amination of  its  standard  writings  and  existing  records. 

There  is  no  need  of  argument,  I  should  say,  to  convince 
our  members,  and  the  intelligent  friends  of  our  cause,  that  it 
is  important  to  our  interests,  and  to  the  cause  of  Christian 
morality  in  our  bounds,  that  there  be  a  more  extended  circu- 
lation of  our  books  and  periodicals.  Messrs.  Stevenson  & 
Owen,  our  Book  Agents  at  Nashville,  two  indefatigable  and 
excellent  men,  are  doing  good  work,  aided,  as  they  are,  by 
Drs.  Summers,  the  efl&cient,  able,  and  untiring  General 
Editor,  and  Hamilton,  at  the  head  of  the  Tract  operations, 
who  is  also  doing  his  work  well,  and  giving  satisfaction  to  our 
friends,  who  are  looking  on  with  interest  at  the  progress  of 
our  new  Publishing  House,  and  the  various  branches  of  busi- 


830  THE   GREAT   IRON   WHEEL   EXAMINED. 

ness  connected  therewith.  Dr.  Sehon,  a  man  of  ability,  and 
capable  of  much  labor,  gives  all  his  time,  and  devotes  all  hig 
energies,  to  the  management  of  our  missionary  operations, 
and  deserves  the  thanks  of  the  Church  for  his  self-sacrificing 
devotion  to  her  interests.  I  have  been  frequently  about  the 
Publishing  House  during  the  past  fall  and  winter,  and  I  take 
a  pleasure  in  testifying  that  the  Agents  are  doing  a  good 
work,  having  a  great  variety  of  useful,  interesting,  and  cheap 
books,  handsomely  printed.  They  are  having  the  buildings, 
which  are  neat  and  substantial,  made  sufficiently  spacious  for 
enlarged  operations,  so  as  to  meet  the  growing  demand  of  our 
Church,  South.  Let  our  friends  in  the  Southern  division  of 
our  Church  patronize  our  Agents  in  all  their  purchases  of  re- 
ligious books,  and  thus  sustain  and  build  up  a  concern  which 
is  to  be  of  vast  service  to  the  Church  in  all  time  to  come. 
Our  book  depositories  at  Richmond,  Charleston,  and  New 
Orleans,  are  only  Iranches  of  the  Book  Concern  at  Nash- 
ville, keeping  on  hand  full  supplies  of  our  books  and  pub- 
lications, which  are  sold  on  the  same  terms  as  those  at  the 
Publishing  House  in  Nashville.  The  Book  Agents  do 
not  publish  books  at  these  depositories.  I  have  been  thus 
particular  in  stating  the  relation  which  these  depositories 
bear  to  the  Publishing  House  in  Nashville,  because  some 
of  our  friends  have  erroneously  supposed  that  they  are 
rival  establishments,  and  that  their  interests  conflict.  Not 
so  :  to  patronize  these,  is  to  patronize  the  Book  Concern  at 
Nashville,  they  having  been  established  to  afford  facilities  to 
those  Conferences  bordering  on  the  Atlantic  and  in  the  far- 
off  West. 

By  all  means,  let  our  people,  and  the  friends  of  our  reli- 
gious interests,  patronize  our  periodicals.  These  are  the 
Richmond,  Charleston,  St.  Louis,  Memphis,  New  Orleans, 
Texas,  and  Nashville  Christian  Advocates.  In  procuring  sub- 
scribers for  these  excellent  and  most  useful  weeklies,  our  friends 


THE    GREAT    IRON    WHEEL    EXAMINED.  331 

should  not  neglect  the  Southern  Methodist  Quarterly 
Review,  edited  by  Dr.  Doggett,  an  able  man;  the  Home 
Circle^  edited  by  that  excellent  man  and  chaste  writer,  Dr. 
Huston;  and  the  Sunday  -  School  Yisitor,  a  publication 
which  needs  no  eulogy  from  me. 

Methodists  throughout  our  bounds  should  subscribe  for  one 
or  another  of  these  Advocates,  the  great  officials  of  the  Church, 
as  they  are  set  for  the  defence  of  the  doctrines  and  discipline 
of  our  Church,  and  all  have  at  their  heads  men  able  to  per- 
form the  task.  Another  reason  why  these  papers  should  be 
Sustained  is  that  they  devote  their  energies  to  the  cause  of 
holiness,  and  aid  the  ministry  in  the  great  work  of  "  spread- 
ing holiness  over  these  lands.''  Last,  but  not  least,  they  will 
keep  our  families  up  with  the  general  intelligence  of  the  day; 
they  will  give  them  the  latest  foreign  and  domestic  news ; 
and  they  will  furnish  the  last  and  most  reliable  market  re- 
ports—  in  a  word,  any  one  of  the  "Advocate  family"  of 
papers  will  be  found  interesting  and  instructing  to  the  general 
reader. 


THE   EN,D 


DUE  DATE 

8iy  FEB 

]  J  Mm 

201-6503 

Printed 
in  USA 

958.6 


COLUMBIA  ^^^^^^^ 

0043882846 


BOUND 
FEB  1 1  1955 


